4 shot dead in Maine home while 3 others shot and injured on busy highway in related shooting
YARMOUTH, MAINE: Four people were shot dead in a Maine home and three others were shot and injured on a busy highway about 25 miles away in a related shooting, authorities said. The lifeless bodies were discovered in a home in Bowdoin before gunfire erupted on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth, where people were wounded while they were inside their vehicles at around 10.30 am according to the police.
One person has been detained although his identity has not been disclosed. Maine State Police confirmed that the two shootings were related but have not provided a motive, police spokesperson Shannon Moss said. “We are confident that there is no imminent threat to the general public at this time,” said Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry, according to New York Post.
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Heavy police presence after the incident
Following the highway shooting in Yarmouth, a city of about 9,000 people about 12 miles north of Portland, there was a heavy presence of police near the scene carrying rifles. Heavily armed officers peered inside the trunk of a car at one point that had apparent bullet holes in the windshield at an off-ramp. Witnesses claim that they saw one person in handcuffs.
The scene brought traffic to a halt on the highway that connects Maine’s largest city, Portland, with the state capital in Augusta. Manager Kim Snyder said that employees at Water Treatment Equipment Inc, a business near the highway scene, were forced to shelter in place for 90 minutes before police lifted the lockdown order. “It definitely shifted the day, and the worry kicked in,” she said. “They hadn’t caught the active shooter. We didn’t know what was going on. There were a lot of the unknowns.”
The home where the bodies were found was surrounded by yellow police tape. About 10 marked and unmarked police cars were at the scene. The home in Bowdoin is at the end of a long, gravel driveway in a wooded area.
'Targeted' shooting outside a funeral home in Washington DC
MEAWW previously reported that a "targeted" shooting outside a funeral home in Northeast DC left one man dead and three others injured, according to police. Just before 12.30 pm on Tuesday, April 11, the gunman opened fire when mourners left the Stewart Funeral Home in Washington after attending a service for a 24-year-old murder victim, Stephon Lamont Carroll.
At a press conference following the shooting, DC Police Chief Robert Contee said, "How low can you be of a human being to target people at a funeral?" The fatally shot man was declared dead at the scene. Three people who were injured in the shooting were immediately shifted to a nearby hospital. They reportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to New York Post.
The victims were near the sidewalk when they were shot and according to police, they did not shoot back at the gunman. Contee who did not elaborate on why the four were shot said that police officers are yet to determine the potential motive and why the victims were targeted. The chief revealed that the person for whom the funeral was held was fatally shot at the end of March.