Crooked River Ranch man arrested in connection with mother’s death
Published 6:30 am Friday, June 8, 2018
- Gavin Smith-Brown
The man suspected of killing his mother in the Crooked River Ranch home they shared was arrested early Thursday after a lengthy phone call with a police officer outside a Tualatin McDonald’s.
Gavin David Smith-Brown, 29, was taken into custody about 5:30 a.m., about 2½ hours after a Tualatin Police officer spotted his car moving through a parking lot and pulled him over.
Smith-Brown had been the focus of a police manhunt since Sunday.
Law enforcement agencies all around Oregon had received a bulletin requesting help locating Smith-Brown and a black 2013 Subaru Outback he was thought to be driving.
In his car outside the McDonald’s, Smith-Brown was “courteous but not compliant” with police demands to leave the Subaru and surrender, according to Tualatin Police Capt. Greg Pickering.
“He just didn’t want to give up, I guess,” Pickering said.
Smith-Brown talked with an officer by phone for nearly an hour and a half before members of the SWAT team began approaching his car, Pickering said.
“They had their plan in place and were ramping up when he cracked the door and said he’d come out,” he said.
Smith-Brown was wanted in connection with the killing of his mother, Gayla Smith, 65, whose body was discovered Sunday afternoon by friends who went to her Dove Road home to see if she was OK.
After Smith-Brown was taken into custody, an officer noticed through a window a shiny, “suspicious” package inside the car, Pickering said.
Bomb disposal specialists were called in about 5:30 a.m., and, as news helicopters circled above, a small robot was used to extract and detonate the package.
It turned out to be several “trinkets” wrapped in a mylar blanket, according to Pickering.
Smith-Brown was taken to Tualatin Police headquarters, where he was interviewed and then transported back to Jefferson County during the day by Oregon State Police.
The scene outside McDonald’s was cleared shortly after 7:30 a.m.
Tualatin is along Interstate 5 about 10 miles south of Portland.
Pickering said the officer who spoke with Smith-Brown didn’t want the content of their conversation discussed with the press.
Jefferson County Sheriff Jim Adkins said his office would seek to seize Smith-Brown’s Subaru Outback to search it for evidence.
The 65-year-old Smith was a retired Los Angeles County policewoman who operated a home inspection business from her house in Crooked River Ranch.
Heather O’Daniel, a friend of Smith’s, said Smith “barely would talk about” her son, who police have said was her only child.
“I think there was a troubled past there,” O’Daniel said.
Smith-Brown’s only criminal involvement on record with the state is a 2013 traffic ticket for driving about 20 miles over the legal limit on U.S. Highway 97 in Jefferson County.
— Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com