Man surrenders after daylong standoff

An armed man finally surrendered about 11:25 p.m. Tuesday after holding a woman and her 6-year-old daughter hostage in a north Spokane motel room for much of the day.

Police said 26-year-old Jeremy Dee Hanson had at least one handgun and fired a round through his door at the Ramada Inn, 9601 N. Newport Highway, before negotiators persuaded him to give up.

The standoff began about 8 a.m. when a motel employee asked the occupants to leave.

Hanson responded by threatening to kill the woman and any officers who responded, the employee told police.

According to police spokesman Cpl. Tom Lee, the woman was approximately the same age as Hanson, who has lived much of his life in Montana.

Lee didn’t know Hanson’s hometown but said he is a convicted felon facing two felony warrants from Montana and, possibly, a warrant from New York. The charges in the warrants weren’t immediately known.

“He knows he’s wanted,” Lee said while the standoff was in progress.

Hanson was believed to have been high on methamphetamine.

Lee said Hanson released the child after eight hours, and she was turned over to Child Protective Services. Shortly after releasing the girl, Hanson fired a shot through his motel room door.

“Our SWAT officers were in the hallway and he heard them and thought they were coming in, so he fired what he considered a warning shot through the door,” Lee said.

Hanson agreed to release the woman about 7:20 p.m.

Lee attributed the woman’s release to negotiations that occurred in “off-and-on” telephone conversations.

“He’ll put the phone down once in a while, and we just call him back,” Lee said, describing Hanson’s behavior as erratic.

He said the woman reported Hanson was suicidal, but she told officers little they didn’t already know. Hanson’s motivation for the standoff remained a mystery, Lee said.

About 50 Spokane police officers, including the SWAT team, a chaplain and hostage negotiators, spent most of the day trying to persuade the man to leave the motel peacefully.

But negotiations stalled after more than seven hours, leaving officers fearful that the standoff would last into the night.

The conflict started early Tuesday when the couple and the girl checked into a room on the third floor of the motel.

They had stayed there Thursday but were asked not to return because of damage to a room and other property, Lee said.

When an employee asked the group to leave Tuesday morning, the woman told the employee that Hanson threatened to kill her. He repeated the threat in front of the employee, adding that he would shoot any officers who approached the motel.

Police quickly evacuated the north wing of the motel and blocked off nearby streets.

The Northland Credit Union, which shares a parking lot with the motel, was closed. Signs warned customers of the situation and advised them to leave immediately.

Relatives of the hostages gathered in the motel parking lot. Mark Boisjolie, 46, of Spokane, said his sister, Kathy Boisjolie, is close to the child. Her partner is the girl’s grandfather, Mark Boisjolie said.

Family members didn’t know Hanson, whom they described as a recent boyfriend of the girl’s mother.

Media crews spent most of the day monitoring the scene, distracting passing drivers on the Newport Highway. Officers responded to at least four fender-benders in front of the hotel.

Meanwhile, rooms continued to be rented in the south wing of the hotel, and business meetings went on as planned.

The motel was providing rooms for police, who had prepared for a long siege.

“It’s gone on so long now that, especially if he’s using meth, we could be here a couple of days,” Lee said before Hanson surrendered.