DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The Attorney General’s Office and Maine State Police are still investigating a pair of shootings that rocked the town of Dover-Foxcroft two months ago.
On Nov. 29, 2011, Michael Curtis, 46, shot and killed maintenance worker Udo Schneider, 53, around 9:30 a.m. outside Hilltop Manor, where Schneider had worked for more than a decade.
After shooting Schneider, Curtis drove his white pickup truck to the nearby Piscataquis Valley Fairgrounds. He was tracked there by police, who surrounded the grounds.
After engaging in a standoff, “Curtis was subsequently shot and killed by Maine State Trooper Jon Brown,” Lt. Col. Raymond Bessette said on the afternoon of the shootings.
Curtis later died at Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft from a single gunshot wound. Schneider died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to his autopsy.
Why Curtis killed Schneider that morning and what action if any will be taken against Trooper Brown remain unclear.
Brenda Kielty, spokeswoman for the Maine Attorney General’s Office, said the investigation into the police-involved shooting is still under way.
Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said there were no new developments in the state police investigation into Curtis’ shooting of Schneider.
Kielty said there were nine police-involved shootings in Maine in 2011 and another this month in Portland.
“It just takes time,” said Kielty. “All of these cases are being investigated.”
Kielty said she couldn’t give a time frame for when the investigation might conclude.
“When you have 10 cases, your staff gets smaller with every new case,” she said.
Curtis and Schneider once worked together as bouncers at the Bear’s Den Tavern in Dover-Foxcroft.
Schneider’s close friend Stephanie Boutilier said the two got along fine until Curtis started dating Schneider’s ex-wife. Curtis eventually married Schneider’s ex-wife, Margaret Jean Curtis.
Although Boutilier said she never witnessed any physical altercations between them, the two had arguments on how to raise Schneider’s children. She said she “lost it” when she heard of Schneider’s death on the TV news.
Other friends were shocked to learn of the shootings.
“ We never saw it coming,” said Dover-Foxcroft Fire Capt. Eric Berce, who added that he had known Curtis for nearly 25 years.
Both men were from Sangerville. Curtis was a Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department dispatcher when he died.
“what action if any will be taken against Trooper Brown remain unclear ”
Seriously? Nice shot Trooper Jon Brown. Move along…nothing to see here…
Nice shot???? It took him 4 tries or better!! And as bad as I hate to say it, I’m gonna side with Goggin on this one. Curtis didn’t need to die, granted he was gonna go away for life.
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Nothing but a rehash, but it does seem good to see some news in from Piscataquis County.
“when you have ten cases, your staff gets smaller with every case” You shouldn’t have ten, In the 1990’s there were on average of 3 a year. In the 2000’s prior to last year, the average was 5. Now there’s 10?
They certainly shouldn’t have this case. From what I hear from the locals, his gun (Curtis’s) was on the ground.
Yeah, because he was an honest, upstanding man who was just trying to get his life together. As upset as he was, even Sheriff Goggin has not said anything about Curtis’s gun being on the ground. You would think that the good Sheriff would be going even more bat guano if that was the case. Well, more than normal anyway.
Unlike Penobscot county, our Sheriff tries not to disclose information about an on going investigation.
I said “the locals”. Dover isn’t a very big town, the word gets out, quite quickly. For instance, everyone in the area knows what was happening to cause this, and I’m not about to state on this post what I know. It doesn’t really matter why it happened, what matter’s is what happened.
Well I’m not from Dover or the Dover area so I don’t know what the Locals say, but I don’t think anyone deserves to be killed in cold blood. No matter what was going on!
Investigate still… wow… Curtis shot Schneider in cold blood… why should we pay for him to live the life in prison… Kill him in cold blood.
yes this is taking time but i would rather it take time then rush to judgement . no one needs to rush to judgement . mike is gone but so is udo and both are missed by there family’s just wait god will work it out.
Don’t think god is too worried about this….he has bigger fish to fry…….if god actually exsisted.