CANAAN, Maine — Police are investigating multiple leads after a Madison man was shot Thursday evening outside a Hell’s Angels motorcycle club on Route 23, which is known locally as Hinckley Road.
Gary Watson, 63, was taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Eastern Maine Medical Center, where he underwent surgery overnight, according to Lt. Gary Wright, who heads the criminal division for the Maine State Police. Wright said Watson was in “critical but stable condition” late Friday morning.
An Eastern Maine Medical Center spokeswoman said Friday afternoon that she has no information about Watson, which means either that he is not at the hospital or that he has not consented to information being released about him.
A neighbor of the motorcycle club called 911 at 5:36 p.m. to report shots fired, said Wright. That neighbor, who declined to be identified in the newspaper because she “doesn’t want trouble” with anyone involved in the incident, told the Bangor Daily News Friday that she had just finished her supper when she heard “at least six shots.”
The woman, who at first assumed the shots were fired by hunters or someone sighting in a gun, said she exited her home yelling to whomever could hear her that the shots were too close. That’s when she heard tires squealing and saw Watson’s truck parked across the center line of Hinckley Road. The woman said she knows Watson and recognized his black Dodge Dakota.
“No one was helping him so I drove my car up there,” said the woman. “I asked him if there was a gun involved and he nodded yes. He couldn’t talk. He didn’t look good at all.”
The woman said two motorists stopped to help and that she called police using her cell phone. She said she saw multiple holes, which appeared to be bullet holes, in the rear window and driver’s side mirror of Watson’s truck and that it appeared as if Watson had been shot in the neck.
The motorcycle club, which according to neighbors is a former butcher shop, is set back from the road behind a chain-link fence with a heavy gate blocking the driveway. On Friday, the dirt driveway just outside the gate was marked up with orange and white spray-painted lines which were apparently applied by investigators. A pair of spin-out marks caused by the tires of a vehicle could also be seen.
Wright said the shooting took place outside the gate that blocks the driveway and that Watson was in his truck when he was shot. Detectives believe the suspect or suspects fled the scene in a vehicle traveling south on Hinckley Road toward Hinckley.
“We have information from different people coming in that may have a bearing on the investigation,” said Wright. “We certainly aren’t overlooking the fact that it might be related to another rival motorcycle gang. That’s something to consider based on the circumstances.”
Wright said the involvement of another gang is one of several scenarios being investigated, but he declined to say whether there is evidence that establishes that link.
Lt. Wright urged anyone who was in the area of the shooting Thursday evening to contact a Maine State Police detective by calling 624-7076.
For more on this story, pick up tomorrow’s Bangor Daily News or check online at bangordailynews.com
