Teenager to be tried as adult in downtown Traverse City parking deck killing

Downtown Traverse City’s Larry C. Hardy Parking Deck, a structure used every day by residents, workers and visitors, became the center of a homicide that rattled the city’s parking system and the families who rely on it. Prosecutors moved ahead with a case that will try Eugene Thompson as an adult after the death of Lawrence Boyd IV, a 32-year-old city Parking Services employee whose body was found the morning of Nov. 16, 2025.

Police said Boyd was shot the night before in the deck at 303 East State Street, then discovered after officers were dispatched at about 7:48 a.m. the next morning. The deck is part of a downtown parking network that Traverse City says provides more than 3,000 vehicle spaces, and city parking staff work out of the same structure. For a county seat built around a busy downtown core, the killing struck at a place people use to park for work, errands, dinner and events.

Boyd’s family approved release of his identity. His obituary said he graduated magna cum laude from Traverse City West Senior High School in 2011 and later studied at Northwestern Michigan College and Ferris State University. The death of a city employee in a public parking facility added another layer of concern for a community where the county population was estimated at 96,729 in July 2025, a size that can make violent crime feel especially personal.

Investigators linked the homicide to a separate late-night incident involving car break-ins and a foot chase that ended with shots fired at police. That confrontation triggered a shelter-in-place order in nearby neighborhoods and a brief lockdown at Northwestern Michigan College, showing how quickly one criminal episode spilled into a wider public-safety response downtown and on campus.

Thompson was 17 at the time of his arrest and was charged as an adult. By March 2026, court reports said he had been found competent to stand trial and bound over to Grand Traverse County Circuit Court. He faces first-degree premeditated murder and alternative felony-murder theories, along with attempted murder, weapons, resisting-and-obstructing, and vehicle-larceny charges. Co-defendant Hunter Vanderwall, 18, also faces felony-murder and related counts.

The case now moves deeper into the 13th Judicial Circuit Court, which serves Antrim, Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties. Prosecutors have said the conduct “shocks the conscience,” while defense counsel has publicly offered condolences and urged the legal process to continue. For a downtown parking deck that sits in the middle of everyday life, the next phase of the case will be watched not only as a courtroom proceeding, but as a test of how Grand Traverse County responds when serious violence reaches a shared public space.