TRAVERSE CITY — Dan Yoo took a breath before describing what he saw when he stopped into work on a Sunday morning at the Larry C. Hardy Parking Deck to catch up on payroll and other operations supervisor duties.
Something was off that morning — the office wasn’t locked and the night duty officer’s things were still there. So Yoo began driving slowly up the deck to check things out. At the top, he saw boots.
On Friday in 86th District Court, Yoo recounted the horrific moments before he called 911, when he found his co-worker, Lawrence Boyd IV, 32, lifeless.
“I saw him laying there … saw his face, his eyes, the blood.”
Yoo was the first of four witnesses to testify at a preliminary examination where the evidence against Eugene Dale Thompson met the burden of proof to be bound over to 13th Circuit Court.
District Judge Robert Cooney found all charges met the probable cause threshold and sent the case up for trial, over the objection of Thompson’s attorney William Burdette.
Thompson, 17, has pleaded not guilty to the six felony charges — first-degree homicide, attempted homicide, possession of a stolen gun, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a firearm while committing a felony and resisting and obstructing police — and the misdemeanor charge of larceny from an auto. Thompson, of Leelanau County, is being tried as an adult.
In court Friday, Thompson watched the proceedings and video footage, occasionally tilting his head back or rubbing his cuffed hands together as Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Attwood presented the case against him.
The case has two time sequences: Traverse City Police responded to a call the night of Nov. 15, 2025, about two men trying car handles and taking items from cars in the Fair Street/Munson Avenue area. The suspects were arrested after a chase, with Thompson identified by police as shooting five bullets at an officer.
Boyd’s body was not found until the morning of Nov. 16, 2025, in the parking deck on State Street.
Attwood called Traverse City Parking Operations Supervisor Dan Yoo to testify as well as Dr. Patrick Hansma, chief medical examiner for Grand Traverse County who performed the autopsy on Body’s body; Logan Core and John Melcher, the two Traverse City Police officers who responded to the original call about Thompson in the Fair Street/Munson Avenue area; and Detective Matthew Verschaeve.
Hansma performed the autopsy on Nov. 17, 2025, finding three gunshot wounds in Boyd’s neck, chest and abdomen. He confirmed the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds, and the manner of death was homicide.
Core and Melcher testified about the Fair Street/Munson Avenue chase and shooting, with both their body camera videos shown as evidence. A surveillance video from the parking deck also was submitted.
Verschaeve testified about interviewing Thompson twice – once after the police chase and again after Boyd’s body was found – “connecting the dots” between the crimes.
“We began with the surveillance video (in the parking deck), and put it together with the body cam video,” Verschaeve said. “ … At that point, Thompson was already in custody.”
Thompson told Verschaeve he shot at both Boyd and Melcher, the officer said.
Earlier in the evening, Thompson, with his friend Hunter Vanderwall, were trying cars in the parking deck when Boyd saw them and gave chase. Thompson told Verschaeve he “realized, he had his ‘s—’ on him, ‘and that’s when the bad stuff happened,’” Verschaeve testified.
He was referring to the gun, a 9mm Sig Sauer 226 pistol, that he told police he carried with him in a fanny pack. To date, he has not said where he got the gun, but Attwood said it was stolen out of Missaukee County.
Thompson told Verschaeve he knew that he had hit Boyd, and described him as “gurgling, gasping for air” when he left him.
But Thompson said he did not know if he hit Melcher – who later found a bullet hole in his pant leg and one in his vest/handcuffs after the chase – and asked about him, Vershaeve said.
“He asked if the officer survived,” the detective testified, adding that Thompson seemed glad to hear that Melcher was not injured.
His demeanor during those questioning sessions with police was the focus for his defense attorney during Friday’s court proceedings.
Thompson told Verschaeve that he was schizophrenic, Burdette pointed out, and that he had developed an alter ego named “EK, who would protect him.”
Thompson believes that EK controls his left hand, the one he used to shoot the pistol, Burdette noted.
“That was his claim,” Verschaeve confirmed on the stand.
In his decision to order the bindover, Cooney said, “There was no evidence to support insanity as a defense presented to this point.”
The judge told Burdette that the burden would be on the defense to make that case. Thompson was found competent to stand trial and assist in his own defense in a March 6 hearing.
“What’s important here is that there’s evidence the defendant actually confessed to the shooting,” Cooney noted.
Thompson’s next court date is for a pretrial hearing at 8 a.m. April 17 in 13th Circuit Court.
Thompson is one of three people arrested in connection with the incidents of Nov. 15-16, 2025.
Vanderwall, 18, of Traverse City, was arraigned on charges of felony murder, larceny from an auto, and resisting and obstructing police. He is accused of being with Thompson in both the parking deck and Fair Street/Munson Avenue incidents.
Vanderwall’s preliminary examination is currently on hold while his competency is evaluated.
A third suspect, Austin Bucco, 20, of Traverse City, also was connected to the events of Nov. 15-16, 2025, and arraigned in the 86th District Court in Traverse City on charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, lying to a police officer during a violent crime investigation, and committing a felony with a firearm.