The Associated Press
AUBURN, Maine - A 16-hour standoff between police and a man who is believed to have shot and killed his mother in the driveway of the house he holed up in ended early Saturday in the man’s death, police officials said.
“We are working under the assumption that he died as the result of one of the shots fired by the state police tactical team,” McCausland said.
Police said on Friday that James shot and killed his 70-year-old mother, Margaret Peters, whose body remained in the driveway throughout the standoff.
Police said it would have been unsafe to have tried to remove the woman’s body during the standoff, which lasted from about 10:30 a.m. Friday until about 3 a.m. Saturday.
Peters did not respond to repeated attempts by police to speak to him, McCausland said.
Autopsies were planned on both bodies.
A member of the state police tactical team was injured by flying glass when the gunman fired through the window of a vehicle, McCausland said.
Ten members of a New Hampshire tactical squad were brought in to help with the standoff, McCausland said. It is the first time in more than 20 years that another state police agency has assisted Maine state police in Maine, he said.
The Maine attorney general’s office was investigating the shooting, as it is required to do whenever police officers use deadly force.
The investigation will determine conclusively whether Peters was killed by state police or took his own life, McCausland said.
© Copyright 2007 Associated Press.