ROCKLAND, Maine — Matinicus Island lobsterman Vance Bunker told police in July that he shot lobsterman Chris Young in the neck on the town dock while defending his daughter, according to an affidavit filed Thursday in a Knox County court.
Bunker said he fired his gun at another man, Weston Ames, who grabbed the barrel of a gun held by Bunker’s daughter and then fired at Young.
“I didn’t have no … choice. I wasn’t gonna let my daughter be shot,” Bunker, 68, told Knox County Sheriff’s Office Detective Donald Murray just after the shooting. “I shot at Weston cause he grabbed my daughter’s gun and Christopher got shot wherever he got shot.”
The affidavit was filed just hours before Bunker appeared before Justice Jeffrey Hjelm in Knox County Superior Court to request that his bail conditions be modified.
Bunker, who was arrested and charged with aggravated assault after the July 20 incident, has been free on $125,000 bail. The bail conditions included his staying away from Matinicus, not using firearms or other weapons or possessing alcohol or illegal drugs.
Bunker’s attorney, Philip Cohen of Waldoboro, withdrew a request that his client be allowed to return to Matinicus, but asked that Bunker be allowed to use alcohol. Hjelm granted the request since alcohol was not a factor in the shooting.
Bunker also is forbidden to have contact with Chris Young, Weston Ames or Ronnie Ames, and those conditions have not changed. Weston Ames is Young’s brother in law.
Young, 41, is recuperating from a gunshot wound in his neck that authorities say he received at Bunker’s hands.
About 20 islanders came to the hearing but sat far away from Bunker and his family.
“Obviously, a lot of people from the island feel strongly about this,” District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau said after the hearing. “These are not people who are partisans … they feel it represents a risk of further violence if he returns. They thought it would be a bad idea.”
According to Cohen, it’s probable that charges will be brought against Chris Young for assault. The attorney likely will submit another request to allow Bunker to return to Matinicus “at a later date.”
“He’s 68 years old. He’s lived on Matinicus his entire life,” Cohen said after the hearing. “He’d like to return to his home.”
Trouble on Matinicus
The day of the worst lobstering-related violence in recent history began with a report of an early morning assault on Matinicus, situated about 20 miles southeast of Rockland.
Detective Murray and Maine Marine Patrol officers Wesley Dean and Matt Talbot left Rockland Harbor at about 7:15 a.m. on a fast boat headed to Matinicus to investigate the complaint, which involved both Bunker and Young. When the law enforcement officials arrived, they heard two significantly different versions of what had happened earlier on Bunker’s boat as it was tied up at the lobster pound.
According to Bunker, Young had boarded the boat and accused him of cutting his fishing gear. The men argued, and then the situation escalated, Bunker told the police.
“Bunker advised that at one point Young assaulted him by grabbing his neck,” Murray wrote in his report.
Tom Bernardi, Bunker’s sternman, told Young to get off their boat, according to Dean’s officer’s report from July 21.
“Bunker then retrieved pepper spray from the forward cabin of the boat, and Bunker then pepper-sprayed Young,” Murray wrote after interviewing Bunker.
The trio of law enforcement officers then found Young, who was hauling gear south of the harbor, Dean wrote.
Young told the group a different tale, saying that he did go on Bunker’s boat to “confront him” about cutting his fishing gear and the two men “wrestled around” during the argument, according to Murray’s report.
“Young advised that the wrestling incident was mutual, with no one party being the aggressor,” Murray wrote.
The officers then tracked down Young’s father, Ronnie Ames, in order to speak with him about the escalating tensions on the island and the reports of cut fishing gear.
“[I] asked him to speak with people and use his influence to try and calm the situation,” Dean wrote. “Ames stated that he would.”
Shortly after that conversation, the officers heard from dispatch that many lobster boats were surrounding Alan Miller’s boat outside of Matinicus Harbor and that the lobsterman was afraid he would be “boarded,” Dean wrote.
Miller is Janan Miller’s husband and Vance Bunker’s son-in-law, and islanders have said since the shooting that Miller’s decision to set traps around Matinicus was very controversial.
Gunshots fired
Dean decided to ride on Miller’s boat into the harbor so that he wouldn’t be harassed, and as they approached the dock, Miller and Young began to argue over gear conflicts, he said in his report.
“Neither man was armed, there were no threats made,” Dean wrote. “After approximately 30 seconds I observed Janan Miller standing at the end of a pile of lobster traps holding a black shotgun and pointing it in the direction of Chris Young.”
Dean ran out of the boat’s wheelhouse and up the side of the dock, then drew his weapon and pointed it at Janan Miller while yelling at her to put the 12-gauge shotgun down. He watched someone — whom he later identified as Weston Ames — go up to Janan Miller, then saw the shotgun barrel “make a sudden movement.”
“At that point I heard a gunshot come from behind a stack of lobster traps,” Dean wrote. “I heard a second gunshot that came from the same location.”
Dean then rounded the stack of lobster traps and saw Vance Bunker holding a handgun, and Chris Young lying on the ground bleeding from the neck. He ordered Bunker to drop the gun.
Ames began to administer medical help to his brother, Young, and so did two other men, Dean said.
“I never saw Weston Ames or Chris Young with a weapon,” Dean wrote. “The only weapons I observed were the shotgun and handgun.”
When Murray arrived at the scene, he saw Bunker and his sternman, Tom Bernardi, heading away from the pier in a blue pickup truck. He stopped them and checked for weapons, finding none, and felt worried about their safety.
“There were numerous people in the area who were obviously agitated and emotional,” Murray wrote.
Bunker told him that Weston Ames had grabbed Miller’s shotgun and threatened her with it, and when he fired his own gun, he did it in defense of his daughter.
But when Murray spoke with Weston Ames, he contested Bunker’s accusation. Ames said that Janan Miller pointed the shotgun at him and that he “pushed the barrel of the gun away,” but never grabbed it from her.
“After he deflected the muzzle of the shotgun, Bunker shot at [Ames,] but missed,” Ames told Murray.
Ames said that he then raised his empty hands toward Bunker, telling him to wait a minute, but that Bunker shot Young anyway.
“He shot my brother,” Ames said, according to Dean.
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