PORTLAND, Maine — An attorney representing the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office deputy said a legal notice filed against his client in the case of a fatal shooting in Windham is “inaccurate” and “offensive.”
Daniel Lilley, a Portland attorney representing the widow of 66-year-old Stephen McKenney, filed a notice of claim seeking $2 million against the sheriff’s office, Deputy Nicholas Mangino and the Windham Police Department for the April shooting of McKenney at his Windham home.
A notice of claim is generally considered a precursor to a full lawsuit.
Peter Marchesi, who is representing the sheriff’s office and Mangino, said during a news conference in Portland on Wednesday morning he expects that any lawsuit filed against his clients in the case would be quickly thrown out by the court.
“I have closely reviewed the notice of claim and, quite frankly, it’s grossly inaccurate,” he said.
Marchesi recounted what he said was an “unvarnished” account of the events of April 12, when McKenney allegedly approached Mangino’s cruiser carrying a cocked and loaded .357 Magnum before the deputy shot him dead with a carbine rifle.
“[McKenney] drew it up, cocked the revolver and drew it down directly on Deputy Mangino,” Marchesi said. “Although not all of the audio was captured on the [police cruiser] video, he was told repeatedly to drop the firearm. Nevertheless, Mr. McKenney continued to hold the Magnum.”
The attorney general’s office, which reviews all police-involved shootings in the state, determined in August that Mangino was justified in using deadly force. But Lilley told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday he’s skeptical of the attorney general’s findings, in part because the office has never not found police to be justified in 20 years of reviewing police-involved shootings.
Lilley argued that McKenney was an upstanding citizen and good family man who was going through a difficult time, and Mangino and the other deputies and Windham police officers who went to the scene did not have adequate crisis training.
McKenney’s wife had called 911 earlier that morning and told dispatchers he was suicidal, but Lilley contends widow Vicki McKenney wanted help for her husband, not the shooting that ultimately transpired.
Marchesi said Wednesday that Mangino has had crisis training, but that Stephen McKenney was not responsive and left no opening to use it.
“This was a situation that was tense and rapidly evolving,” Marchesi said. “There was precious little time for strategizing.”
Marchesi said Mangino — who is training with the National Guard and was not present at Wednesday’s news conference — earlier had called for police to retreat from the McKenney home and take up positions outside while McKenney was initially brandishing a firearm inside, giving the man more time to comply when deadly force could have been justified.
When McKenney left the home and began approaching police with the revolver outside, Mangino had run out of options, Marchesi said. The attorney said McKenney continued to advance on Mangino even after a first shot by the deputy sailed past him.
“Mr. McKenney’s firearm has an effective range of 100 yards — an effective range is the distance at which the weapon will hit a human-sized target more often than not,” Marchesi said. “That’s 300 feet, and Mangino allowed him to get within 70 feet before resorting to deadly force. … If he did anything wrong, it was that he let Mr. McKenney get too close to him before [shooting].”
Marchesi acknowledged that the incident was “a real tragedy,” but said if McKenney had been allowed to shoot his revolver and injure or kill a police officer or — in this case — a civilian “ride-along” who was also on scene, the public would be asking why Mangino wasn’t more proactive.
Marchesi also said police shoot their weapons in “a small fraction of 1 percent” of the potential violent situations they’re called to, and that the vast majority of the time, police defuse volatile situations with minimal or no force.
“No police officer, including Deputy Mangino, wants to come to work and experience a situation where there’s even a threat of having to use deadly force,” the attorney said. “Officers don’t get involved in situations like this and feel good about it. Deputy Mangino will carry this with him forever.”
