Man died of gunshot to head in Lamoine shooting

LAMOINE, Maine — Police continue to investigate the circumstances that resulted in the death of one man and gunshot wounds to three others in Lamoine over the weekend, Lt. Chris Coleman of the Maine State Police said at a Monday afternoon press conference.

Coleman said at 2 p.m. that police have been unable to interview everyone involved in the early Sunday morning shooting.

Torrey Garland, 34, of Ellsworth, remains in critical condition at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, he said.

“We have not had an opportunity to speak to him,” Coleman said. “We remain optimistic that at some point we will be able to talk to him and get his version of events.”

Also shot during the incident, which happened around 4:30 a.m. Sunday outside a house on Route 184, were Lawrence “Randy” Sinclair, 32, of Ellsworth; Joshua McKinney, 25, of Ellsworth; and Michael Carter, 30, of Lamoine. Sinclair died Sunday afternoon as a result of a gunshot wound to the head, the state Medical Examiner’s Office indicated on Monday.

Carter and Tacy Mullins, 22, live in the house outside of which the shooting occurred. The home is owned by Mullins’ mother, Juanita Mullins. Tacy Mullins and Sinclair’s brother, Jacob Sinclair, 24, of Ellsworth, were at the property at the time of the incident but were not hurt, according to police.

No charges have been filed yet in connection with the incident, according to Coleman.

The police lieutenant said that after Garland was shot, he drove away from the scene in a borrowed pickup truck but then crashed the vehicle approximately a half-mile north on the highway from the home. He said police do not know whether Garland may have received any additional injuries in the vehicle accident. Coleman said Garland had borrowed the truck prior to the shooting from a friend, whom he did not identify.

The injuries suffered by Carter and McKinney are not considered life-threatening, according to police. Coleman said both McKinney and Carter remained hospitalized as of Monday afternoon.

Coleman said police have recovered one firearm from the scene but did not say whether more than one firearm may have been involved. He declined to identify what kind of gun it was that police have recovered or who it belonged to.

Without being more specific, Coleman said the four men who drove to the home — Garland, McKinney and the two Sinclairs — rode in two separate vehicles. He said police are checking the criminal backgrounds of the people involved and are looking into whether any may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs or whether drugs may otherwise have been involved.

Coleman said police are still trying to sort out who did what during the incident but that everyone involved appears to be accounted for. He said police do not believe the incident poses any ongoing safety concerns to the general public.

“We have not drawn any conclusions in and around the shooting,” Coleman said. “Our goal is to get to the bottom of who shot who.”

Coleman said police are aware that Jacob Sinclair has written about what happened during the shooting on his Facebook page.

“We are taking a look at those [postings] and some others,” Coleman said, without commenting in detail about what Sinclair wrote. “That’s something that is routinely done in these types of cases.”

According to the Maine State Bureau of Identification, Carter, Garland, and both Sinclairs have prior criminal convictions but Tacy Mullins and McKinney do not. Garland was convicted in 2009 in Ellsworth of unlawful possession of scheduled drugs and has three subsequent convictions for violating conditions of release. Jacob Sinclair was convicted in 2008 in Ellsworth of disorderly conduct, according to the state agency’s records.

Carter has convictions for hindering apprehension or prosecution, obstructing government administration, refusing to submit to arrest or detention, operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicants, disorderly conduct, unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, theft, negotiating a worthless instrument, and violating conditions of release, state records indicate.

Randy Sinclair has a 2002 conviction on an assault charge in Ellsworth, state records indicate, and according to federal court documents he was sentenced in 2002 to serve a year and a day in prison after breaking into the Ellsworth Post Office in 2001.

On Monday morning, state police investigators were at the scene of the shooting at 749 Douglas Highway, the local name for Route 184, searching for evidence. A state police Major Crimes Unit utility truck and a cruiser were parked in the driveway, behind yellow crime scene tape strung along the front of the road. Two dogs, at least one of which is a state police dog trained to sniff out evidence, were trotting around in the dooryard of the home. Detectives were using a metal detector outside the house as they looked for items on the ground.

A neighbor whose home is about 100 yards from the shooting scene said Sunday that he was awakened by the sound of gunshots.

“I heard three gunshots,” said the man, who asked not to be identified. “But that’s not unusual. The person who lives across the street repairs guns, so we hear shots a lot.”

According to Holden police, a man with the same name, age and hometown as Lawrence Sinclair was involved but unharmed in a separate accident Saturday afternoon on Route 1A between Ellsworth and Bangor.

Holden police said Saturday that Lawrence Sinclair got distracted and lost control of his 2002 Ford Explorer, causing the vehicle to strike a utility pole where Route 1A intersects with Bagaduce Road. The pole fell across Bagaduce Road, causing traffic to slow down in both directions and forcing vehicles to be rerouted. The vehicle was demolished.

The Associated Press and Bangor Daily News writer Tom Walsh and photographer Gabor Degre contributed to this report.