Two Shootings at a Bowdoin House in Maine and Two More Dead and Three Strained Injured People, Two of which are Linked
Maine authorities have detained a person of interest and continue to investigate after two shooting incidents that appear to be connected left at least four people dead and three others injured, state police said.
BOWDOIN, Maine — Four people were fatally shot at a house in Maine on Tuesday shortly before gunfire wounded three others on a busy highway, in a pair of crimes that are linked, authorities said. A man is charged with murder.
There were reports of vehicles getting hit by gunfire on an area of I- 295, which is about half an hour from Bowdoin, shortly after.
State police said three people have been shot and taken to the hospital. At least one of those three was in critical condition Tuesday, authorities added.
“We’ve got vehicles that have been hit by straight gunfire all across that we’re getting reports on, so if anybody has holes in their vehicles, please contact us so that we can follow up with that,” Keaten said.
“A lot happened this morning between those two scenes and those are the people that we want to talk to, those people that were impacted by this,” Keaten said, adding authorities were continuing to work on several impacted scenes and gather more information.
A Maine teen killed in a link-highway-shooti: “What happened to a car that had bullet holes in it?”
Police had shut down the southbound lanes and traffic backed up on the interstate. The highway was not open until later in the day when the police were at one exit looking at a car.
Police closed a portion of the interstate highway and residents and businesses in the area were ordered to shelter in place for about 90 minutes before authorities determined there was no threat to the general public.
The shootings are among a spate of recent mass killings that have shaken communities both large and small, including a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee; a bank in Louisville, Kentucky and a Sweet 16 party in a small city in Alabama.
In Maine, police charged Joseph Eaton, 34, of Bowdoin, with four counts of murder Tuesday evening but declined to discuss a possible motive for the shootings or identify the shooting victims. The court was expected to hear the case later this week.
Law enforcement officers, some carrying long rifles, could be seen canvassing areas near the highway after the shootings. At one point heavily armed officers at an off- ramp peered into the trunk of a car that had bullet holes in it. Police said a person of interest was detained, and witnesses saw one person in handcuffs.
In a town with about 3000 people, yellow crime tape hung in front of a home with woods at the end of a long gravel driveway. Law enforcement vehicles and a van that was used to investigate a crime were parked outside, as were investigators.
I’m shocked and sad like a lot of people in Maine. She said acts of violence shook the state and the communities to the core.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/19/1170805270/4-are-killed-in-a-maine-home-and-3-others-are-wounded-in-a-linked-highway-shooti
The scene of a traffic lockdown at Rosemont Market, Bakery, Calif., recounted by a woman who worked in the building next door
The employees at the business were locked in their offices for around one hour and a half after being told of the lock-down. Workers saw cars backing up on the highway, along with police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.
Lenora Felker, who works near the highway at Rosemont Market and Bakery, said she sensed something was afoot when people started streaming in, saying the highway was closed, followed by dozens of law enforcement officers who descended on the area.
Felker said officers went to business and asked “If anyone was wet and muddy fleeing.” But she knew all the customers and didn’t see anything unusual, she said.