Joseph Eaton: Maine shooter accused of fatally shooting 4 and injuring 3 was released from prison just days earlier
BOWDOIN, MAINE: The 34-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his parents and their two friends at a home in Bowdoin, Maine, before opening fire on random vehicles on a busy highway, had been released from prison just days earlier. Joseph Eaton, 34, had served his two-year prison sentence for aggravated assault on Friday, April 14 ahead of the killing spree on Tuesday.
Eaton's slain mother Cynthia Eaton picked him up from the Windham Correctional Center and drove him to the home in Bowdoin. He is a convicted felon in Maine, Florida, and Kansas, and was barred from owning firearms. Moreover, a day before the cold-blooded slaying, an emotional Eaton went live on Facebook, begging for forgiveness through tears and claiming he's had to deal with trauma in the past, including being molested.
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What really happened in Bowdoin?
The Sagadahoc County Sheriffs responded to a 911 call from a family friend on Tuesday, around 9.21 am, who had walked into the home at 1459 Augusta Road and found a dead body, Colonel Bill Ross said. When officers arrived they discovered four lifeless bodies; three of them were inside the residence — homeowners Robert Eger, 72, and Patricia Eger, 62, as well as Eaton’s 62-year-old mother Cynthia. Eaton’s father, 66-year-old David Eaton, was found dead in a barn near the house. All victims were killed after suffering gunshot wounds and their deaths have been ruled homicide by the Maine Office of Chief Medical Examiner.
Things took an even more dramatic turn after police in Yarmouth, Falmouth, and Cumberland responded to scores of calls about an active shooter on I-295 southbound between mile marker 17 near the Route 1 underpass, about 25 miles south of Bowdoin. Eaton shot and injured three motorists and struck another vehicle going northbound “because he thought he was being followed by police,” Ross said. Victims Shawn Halsley, 51, and Justin Halsey, 29 suffered non-life-threatening injuries, while Paige Halsey, 25, still remains in critical condition at Maine Medical Center.
Eaton was apprehended from a wooded area around 10.50 am not far from the shooting scene and was taken to Maine Medical Center where he received treatment before being released. “Mr. Eaton was then taken by major crimes detectives and Portland Police officers to the Portland Police Department where he gave a confession and admitted to killing his parents and his parents’ friends,” Ross said, as per New York Post. Maine State Police continued to search the area where the suspect was taken into custody out of an abundance of caution. The 34-year-old was charged with four counts of murder and was booked at the Two Bridges Regional Jail.
Joseph Eaton's public cry for help
A day before the shootings, Eaton went live on Facebook begging for forgiveness. “Going to try to go through this, but I’m going to get emotional just talking about it, but a lot of people looking a [me] like There’s just another fuck up, another guy that can’t get his stuff right…” he said in a Facebook live post on Monday. “They claim to be Christian, but you can’t forgive somebody or understand what they go through. You can’t give someone a second chance but you say you’re Christian. Now does that make sense?” he continued, without saying who exactly he was talking about.
(Joey Eaton/Facebook)
“Why can’t you try to take it slow, try to get the know the person? What good’s it do to hate somebody? It destroys you. It’s not the way things were supposed to be done it’s not the way we were made,” he says choking up. “Just need to try and forgive me for the things I did. I’ve been dealing with trauma for a long time on things I don’t talk to people about — being molested and stuff, it destroys somebody,” he said. Mike Sauschuck, the Maine Department of Public Safety commissioner, called the crimes “an attack on the soul of our state” that shook neighbors, law enforcement officers, and the state at large. “It’s a shock to everybody,” he said. “You want to naturally say, ‘That can’t be happening here in Maine.’ But the reality is these senseless acts can and do happen everywhere.”