The use of deadly force by a state trooper who fired several rounds at a Cushing man on Augusta Road in Jefferson in August 2016 was reasonable, the Maine Attorney General’s Office concluded in a report issued Friday, July 21.
The rounds fired by Sgt. Jason Madore did not hit Shane Prior, 34, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Prior shot his former partner in the arm outside her friend’s home on Somerville Road in Jefferson at about 10 p.m., Monday, Aug. 15, 2016, according to the Maine Attorney General’s Office report and a statement from Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland the day after the incident.
Prior left the residence in a pickup truck, but Maine State Police troopers stopped the truck on Augusta Road. An unidentified trooper shouted commands for Prior to show his hands and get out of the vehicle.
“Within seconds, there was a gunshot from within the vehicle,” according to the report. “Sgt. Madore was outside his cruiser, which was behind and to the left of Mr. Prior’s vehicle. Hearing the gunshot, observing muzzle flash, and hearing a round going through a wooded area, he believed that Mr. Prior was firing at him and/or the other officers. Sgt. Madore fired several rounds at Mr. Prior.”
“No further activity came from Mr. Prior’s vehicle,” according to the report.
Members of the Maine State Police Tactical Team eventually “approached the vehicle and determined that Mr. Prior was deceased,” according to the report. “He still held a handgun in his hand, and he had been shot in the head.
“The investigation included an autopsy, which disclosed that none of the rounds fired by Sgt. Madore struck Mr. Prior, but that Mr. Prior shot himself in the head with his own pistol.”
“Attorney General Janet T. Mills concludes that at the time Sgt. Madore shot at Mr. Prior, he reasonably believed that Mr. Prior presented an imminent threat of unlawful deadly force against himself and others,” the report reads. “It was reasonable for Sgt. Madore to believe it necessary to use deadly force to protect himself and any other persons within range of Mr. Prior and his weapon.”
Prior was angry about a recent breakup with his longtime partner and about her new relationship when he went to Somerville Road, according to the report. His former partner was sitting in her car with the door open when he approached on foot and grabbed her cellphone out of her hand.
Prior and his former partner “scuffled” down the driveway and across the street before Prior “pulled a handgun from the back of his waistband, chambered a round, and pointed it at the former partner … The former partner ran back toward the residence; Mr. Prior discharged at least two rounds at the woman, one of which struck her in the arm,” according to the report.
The woman fled into the house and locked the door behind her. Prior, still armed, attempted to kick the door down, but the homeowner confronted him and “escorted him off her property,” according to the report.
The 30-year-old gunshot victim was taken to LincolnHealth’s Miles Campus in Damariscotta, where she was treated and released, according to the initial press release from the Department of Public Safety and a spokesman for the hospital.
Two young children were on the property at the time of the shooting, but did not witness it, according to the press release.
The Maine Attorney General’s Office investigates every use of deadly force by law enforcement in Maine.
The report differs in some aspects from the initial press release about the incident from McCausland, the spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.
The press release reported that five troopers chased Prior’s truck about 3 miles, onto Rockland Road and then Augusta Road, until he stopped the truck on Augusta Road about a half-mile from Rockland Road; and that Prior then fired a shot at Madore, who returned fire, before Prior shot himself.
“Initial reports are sometimes incorrect,” McCausland said in an email Tuesday, July 25. “The (attorney general’s) report details what happened.”
Madore is a 12-year veteran of the Maine State Police and a member of the agency’s crisis negotiation team. He is assigned to Troop D in Augusta.
