By Associated Press
MAINE — State and local authorities are investigating two separate fatal shootings by police in Waldoboro and Rumford, Maine, during the weekend.
In Waldoboro, a local police officer shot an 18-year-old Whitefield man following a traffic stop and confrontation about 2:15 a.m. yesterday, said Brian MacMaster, director of investigations for the attorney general’s office.
While details of what happened were not complete yesterday, MacMaster said Waldoboro Officer Zack Curtis stopped a car driven by a juvenile, and passenger Gregori Jackson, 18, of Whitefield, “got out and engaged the officer physically.”
Jackson ran into a wooded area with Curtis in pursuit, and the two struggled physically; Jackson was shot during the struggle, MacMaster said.
Two juveniles in the car with Jackson apparently did not know Jackson well, MacMaster said.
Late Saturday afternoon, Maine State Police shot and killed a Rumford man following a seven-hour standoff at the home of his former wife in Rumford.
Police shot Scott White, 46, as he left the home and struggled with State Police. He was pronounced dead at Rumford Hospital.
Steve McCausland, spokesman for the state Public Safety Department, said White was out on bail on an attempted murder charge involving a recent knife attack on his former wife. He allegedly entered her home Saturday morning, when no one was home. Neighbors notified police.
Rumford police, believing White was armed with knives, asked for help from a State Police tactical team. Police said he threatened to set the house on fire.
Tactical team members began to negotiate with White, and when he left the house about 5:20 p.m. to retrieve a telephone from a State Police negotiator, troopers confronted him to make an arrest.
“He was Tasered, and then he continued to approach officers when the shooting occurred,” McCausland said.
Trooper Tim Black, a member of the tactical unit, shot White. Black was placed on administrative leave with pay while State Police and the state attorney general’s office investigate the shooting.
In August, White pleaded not guilty to an attempted murder charge stemming from an event at home on June 28. Police reports indicated White allegedly stabbed Tracey White, 47, three times.