WINDHAM, Maine — The office of Attorney General Janet Mills has determined that a Cumberland County deputy sheriff was justified in using deadly force during an April incident in which an apparently suicidal Windham man approached him and his vehicle with a loaded revolver.
An unarmed civilian on a “ride-along” with the deputy was in the law enforcement officer’s cruiser when Stephen F. McKenney, 66, was approaching it with a .357 Magnum during the April 12 incident, Mills’ office reported.
McKenney’s wife had called 911 to report that a lower back injury suffered seven months earlier had caused him chronic pain, had “really affected him mentally” and that he was suicidal.
Mills released the findings on Thursday morning. The attorney general’s office is required to investigate every police shooting in the state. Thus far, all such shootings since 1995 have been determined by the attorney general’s office to be justified.
There were 96 shootings involving police officers in Maine between 1995 and 2013 investigated by the attorney general’s office, 46 of which were fatal.
McKenney’s wife called 911 at 6:14 a.m. on the day of the shooting, according to Mills’ report. Two Windham police officers and Cumberland County Deputy Sheriff Nicholas Mangino arrived at the scene at approximately the same time eight minutes later.
The law enforcement officers met McKenney’s wife near an attached garage and escorted her to a safe location, a cul-de-sac 284 feet away. They then entered the residence, where they found McKenney holding the revolver, Mills reported.
The man refused to put down the weapon when directed by police, the attorney general’s office reported.
The three officers then left the residence and took positions outside, along with a number of other officers who were arriving at the scene in the meantime, the attorney general reported.
Police then saw McKenney leave the residence, Mills said.
“Mr. McKenney cocked the revolver, raised it, and then slowly lowered it in a motion as if he were seeking a target,” the attorney general’s office report states. “Mr. McKenney appeared to be focused on Deputy Mangino, who had gone to retrieve a rifle from his cruiser parked on the street at the driveway entrance, about 100 feet from Mr. McKenney. From that location, Deputy Mangino issued several commands to Mr. McKenney to drop the gun. The commands went unheeded.”
Mangino moved so that the engine block of his cruiser was between him and the approaching McKenney, according to the attorney general’s office findings.
“Inside Deputy Mangino’s police cruiser was a civilian passenger, who was participating in an authorized ‘ride-along,’” the attorney general’s office stated, in part. “The passenger was unarmed, had no ballistic protection, and was in the front passenger seat ducking down, hoping to prevent Mr. McKenney from seeing him.”
McKenney was brandishing his weapon and continuing his advance toward the deputy when Mangino fired two rounds from his carbine rifle at him.
McKenney was 69 feet away from Mangino at the time the deputy fired the shots, and his revolver was found cocked and loaded. The state medical examiner’s office determined he died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
In Thursday morning’s announcement, Mills said she “has concluded that at the time Deputy Mangino shot Mr. McKenney, [he] reasonably believed that unlawful deadly force was imminently threatened against him and other persons within range of the weapon brandished by Mr. McKenney.”
The attorney general’s office noted that it is not charged with determining whether the shooting could have conceivably been avoided, just whether the law enforcement officer reasonably believed his life or the lives of others were in danger, and that deadly force was necessary to prevent that danger.
