MONMOUTH, Maine — A 23-year-old Monmouth man with a long history of mental illness was taken to the behavior unit of an area hospital late Wednesday afternoon after he barricaded himself in his home earlier in the day and set a fire, according to a Monmouth police officer.
Police were able to quickly reach inside the door and extinguish the fire, but their attempts to calm the man down and get treatment for him were not successful, Monmouth police Officer Michael Parshall said shortly after the man was dropped off at the hospital.
Parshall credited the actions of workers with Crisis & Counseling Centers, which provides crisis services to residents of Kennebec and Somerset counties.
While officers eventually got the man to come outside by leaving him messages, the man barricaded himself in a pickup before he could be taken into custody, Parshall said.
One of the workers, whose full name was not immediately available, managed to convince the man to get the help he needed.
“He was completely despondent, and she was able to get him to take water and some food and she actually eventually got him to come out with the assistance of family members,” Parshall said.
“Then, by all of us working together, I got him to walk into the [police] car, not even handcuffed. I couldn’t believe it,” the officer said. “We were able to get him without incident into St. Mary’s.”
The episode that led police to the man’s residence began earlier in the day, when officers received a call from the owner of Phil’s Soup and Variety on Route 202, indicating a vehicle had blocked a gas pump for about an hour and a man who had been driving it was acting strange, according to Parshall.
The man, whose name was not released, eventually drove off and police followed him home, Parshall said.
Parshall said police officers used a Taser on the man three times in an attempt to subdue him, but the device had no effect.
Police then let him go inside the house in the hope he would calm down.
“We tried to get him to cooperate and come with us,” Parshall said.
Bangor Daily News writer Ryan McLaughlin contributed to this report.