ORRINGTON, Maine — Drugs have been linked to the arson fire set and the gunshots fired early Sunday at a rented Johnson Mill Road home, law enforcement officials said Monday.
Someone pulled up to 312 Johnson Mill Road about 2:15 a.m. Sunday and poured a flammable liquid almost all the way around the residence and then lit the liquid on fire, Sgt. Ken Grimes of the State Fire Marshal’s Office said Monday.
“It’s an intentionally set fire,” the fire investigator said. “The house was targeted.”
After the fire was started, the arsonist or someone else took out a gun and fired at the residence, Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross said Monday.
“The shots did strike the house” when people were inside, the sheriff said.
The sheriff’s department is handling the firearm portion of the investigation, the fire marshal’s office is handling the arson, and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency was called in Sunday afternoon, Grimes said.
“The investigation [into the fire and gunshots] did conclude there was some indication of drug use in the house and MDEA was contacted,” he said.
The Johnson Mill Road probe led drug agents to a considerable amount of street drugs at another residence, Darrell Crandall, MDEA division commander for northern Maine, said Monday.
“We executed a search warrant at another residence … and have seized a substantial quantity of drugs,” he said. “We have not charged anybody.”
Crandall said he could not release the type of drugs seized or the exact amount because of the ongoing investigation, but said agents are working hand-in-hand with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office and the fire marshal’s office.
“We are going to remain involved in this investigation as long as is necessary,” the MDEA commander said.
The owner of neighboring Shaw’s Garage, who asked not to be identified, said Monday that he noticed when the arsonist’s vehicle pulled into the driveway of the home his brother rents to a man who was away at work.
“I saw the headlights and stuff and we saw flames and I called my brother [who lives nearby] and he came out and put out the fire” with a garden hose, the local businessman said. The arsonist and gunman “were gone by the time I got out there. I got dressed. My brother got half dressed” and ran out to put out the fire.
The businessman said that while he was getting dressed, he heard the gunshots. He said he later saw bullet shells in the driveway, marked by safety cones by police or firefighters, that he thought might be .38-caliber bullets.
Another neighbor told the garage owner that they saw two people in the getaway vehicle.
“It looked like they put extra gas on the doors to keep whoever was inside from coming out,” the local businessman said, adding that the doors to the two-bedroom residence have visible fire damage.
About a quarter-mile of Johnson Mill Road was closed to traffic in both directions for a few hours early Sunday morning while police investigated. In addition to Penobscot County sheriff’s deputies, which included local officers, Maine State Police troopers and their mobile crime lab responded along with firefighters from both the Orrington and Brewer.
Two people recently have been visiting the tenant, who has lived at the Johnson Mill Road home for about a year, the local garage owner said.
“They’re gone now,” he said. “They were going to leave Sunday” but were asked to stay by investigating police.
No arrests have been made in the arson, but “we have a person of interest,” Grimes said.
Neighbors said Sunday that police have been to the rented house before, a statement that was confirmed by Ross.
“We had an incident here about a year ago where SWAT was called,” one neighbor said. “It’s not the family that owns the land, the Shaws, it’s the renters that seem to cause the trouble.”
The three partnering agencies met for several hours Monday afternoon to discuss the ongoing investigation, and future charges are in the works, Ross said.
“It’s a very serious matter,” the sheriff said.
BDN reporter Andrew Neff contributed to this story.
I may be mistaken but when this article came out the first time they made it sound like there was a crazy man inside the residence and now they are saying someone else started the fire and the shots were from outside. Maybe I am confused with another story??
I guess they should have paid their drug bill…Now they ratted out the supplier..I see this getting even more messy..Kinda reminds me how the coke killings in the Belfast area back in the 80s started…Hopefully there isn’t another Joel Fuller out there to be hired to kill them all…Scarey…
“The man asked to not be identified…..” BUT “….he was the Owner of Shaw’s Garage……” so BDN is asking that No One Please Make Any Connection……..
The gunshots probably were to wake up the inhabitants of the house to what danger they faced. It is becoming a crazy world.
Hm.. So even though the owner of the garage asked not to be identified…. You pretty much did anyway.
Way to go. I’m sure he appreciates that.
Maybe it’s a Neighborhood Clean Up Program!!
When will it stop, Drugs, Bath Salts,throwing babies out the window, stabbings, murder. We don’t want this in our little corner of the world. Export these people. Isn’t it time to really increase the penalties so to discourage, it all. Maybe our rep’s in Augusta and the Feds will take notice soon but we need to let them know or they won’t do anything.
Drugs are everywhere, on a 1/3 of all our country’s street corners, they have permeated our society since the beginning of fermented fruit when we walked with our knuckles dragging in dirt. I theorize that the Cartels, Triads, Mafias and Gangs pay our political system to insure that we never legalize the use of drugs. We house the largest prison system in the world. It creates a developed network for the recently incarcerated, akin to facebook. The dangers of creating a law is that we create criminals when that law is written. It can be endlessly argued by polemical articles and diatribes, but in the end, what we write as law is “good” and through it we define what is “bad”. The policies that our country has committed to — is creating a problem, not fixing one. I hypothesis that by the end of 2020, we will see a proliferation of drug use, violence and the might of organized crime filling our streets.
For those that doubt, look at prohibition and what it did historically. It, the criminal process, grew faster then the internet. Our government did not repeal prohibition because it was the right thing to do, it was because they feared the power of organized crime. If we police non violent behavior between individuals, then we create crime where there may not have been before.
We the people and our government have created the situation in Orrington, through passivity, through purchase, through rose colored glasses that we must control what others ingest. The price for controlling consumption of damaging substances to our countrymen will be to high and we will all have to pay for a worsening, not improving, situation.
So we should just legalize heroin and all will be well?
Seriously. These people were making $ of drug sales. You can make every single stinking drug known to man legal, but if someone fails to ‘pay the bill’ then there’s going to be hell to pay – period.
It sounds like the Shaws need to pull off their rose-colored glasses and deal with this ‘renter.’
“So we should just legalize heroin and all will be well?”
– Legalized substances are still dangerous and will still cause deaths, deaths of the user and or other concerns will arise from the substance.
“Seriously. These people were making $ [off] of drug sales.”
– Yes, people make money off of wanted substances regardless of legality. Increasing penalties does little to deter the distributors or the buyers. Therefore the solution that our government has committed to, is no solution at all.
“You can make every single stinking drug known to man legal, but if someone fails to ‘pay the bill’ then there’s going to be hell to pay – period.”
– If the substance is legal, then police can be contacted without fear. The courts of our country can regulate property of said substance, issuance of permits of operation — licensing, safety and control would most likely occur. Taxation of the substance would revitalize our economy and treatment centers would be able to better approach addicts without the concern of the addict being imprisoned. Imprisonment of drug users and dealers do nothing to stem the tide and only increase the already largest prison system in the world.
“It sounds like the Shaws need to pull off their rose-colored glasses and deal with this ‘renter.'”
– It is their property and they can remove the tenant and seek financial restitution for the damages. I would champion that decision. Hopefully they are more careful who they rent to in the future to avoid further concern over property and well being.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/25/drug-money-funds-voter-fraud-in-kentucky/
I hope this article, further, validates my point.