23-Hour Standoff Ends Peacefully

Police planned to search for pipe bombs today in the home of a military surplus store owner who surrendered peacefully Wednesday night after a 23-hour armed standoff.

Robert W. Tayloe, 46, told authorities there were bombs in his house, but Police Chief Damond Meshishnek said “the information is that they are in a safe condition.”

Meshishnek said the house would be guarded all night, and bomb specialists would be called in today for the search.

The standoff began at about 8 p.m. Tuesday when neighbors reported hearing shots in the vicinity of Tayloe’s modest home two blocks west of the downtown business district. He apparently went there shortly after quarreling with his wife, Linda, about 5 p.m. at their tiny surplus and herbal store on Main Street.

Police were alarmed Wednesday morning when Tayloe, who had been wearing casual clothing, put on a full camouflage outfit and a headband, Meshishnek said.

Linda Tayloe called police after the quarrel because “he left in a frame of mind that caused her to be alarmed about his well-being,” Meshishnek said.

She said he was suffering from hepatitis C - a chronic form of the disease that can cause severe liver damage - and feared medication may have affected his judgment.

But officers found no immediate reason to search for Tayloe, who has a U.S. flag and a prisoner of war flag flying on a pole outside his home.

Linda Tayloe and the couple’s two children - a girl, 10, and a boy, 5 - didn’t go home Tuesday night. Tayloe was alone in the house throughout the tense confrontation.

A six-square-block area around the house was cordoned off after the shots were fired, and close neighbors were evacuated. Others in the area were advised to leave, but Meshishnek didn’t know how many actually did.

Nor did he know how many officers were called out. Colville police were joined by officers from the sheriff’s departments in Stevens and Spokane counties, the Washington State Patrol and, shortly before Tayloe surrendered, Spokane city police.

Meshishnek said his officers heard several shots shortly after they arrived Tuesday night. They later saw movement in the house, and were confident Tayloe hadn’t shot himself.

There was no more gunfire until about 2:20 p.m. Wednesday when several more shots were fired, Meshishnek said.

Stevens County Sheriff Craig Thayer said the suspect was shooting at officers who had taken up positions in an apartment building that was under construction across the street. He said that’s why Tayloe was booked on suspicion of assault when he surrendered. Several other shooting-related charges also are possible, Thayer and Meshishnek said.

Tayloe was to receive a mental health evaluation because of indications that he may have been suicidal.

Thayer said comments Tayloe reportedly made to his family a week ago suggested he may have been inclined to provoke a shootout in the hope that police would kill him.

Meshishnek credited members of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department tactical and negotiating team with bringing the incident to a peaceful conclusion. Team members wearing military flak jackets and bullet-proof shields placed a two-way speaker and later a telephone in Tayloe’s house. Tayloe laid down his guns and walked out at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, a little more than 1-1/2 hours after receiving the telephone.

Meshishnek said police tried unsuccessfully to call Tayloe on his own telephone. He didn’t respond to two pleas over his answering machine, and the phone appeared to have been taken off the hook the third time officers called. Police had no contact with Tayloe until the Spokane County unit delivered the speaker and portable telephone.

“He was kind of fatigued and opted to come out and surrender,” Thayer said. “He expressed some concerns about his family.”

People who know Tayloe casually said he moved away from Colville several years ago and recently returned. He has a Tennessee driver’s license, issued in October 1995, that lists an address in Clarksville.

Authorities say Tayloe has no substantial criminal history, but he is scheduled to be arraigned next Monday - one day before his 47th birthday - on a third-degree theft charge. Tayloe was cited March 14 for allegedly shoplifting cigarettes from a local grocery store.

Tayloe was charged with writing a bad check in 1996, but the case was dismissed in April that year at the request of the Stevens County prosecutor’s office.

Public records also show the Tayloes forfeited rural properties in 1993 and 1996 and that Robert Tayloe gave his wife sole possession of their current home last April. Then, last fall, the couple used the home as collateral for a business loan from the Trico Economic Development District.

Their Life’s Essentials and Flat Creek Herbs store offers “colloidal silver” and “healing research” and advertises grenades and camouflage clothing. Although the store has been open for several months, a sign on the door indicates its “grand opening” began last Friday and will continue until this weekend.