AUGUSTA, Maine — A man claiming to be homeless was arrested Thursday after leading police on a pursuit through multiple communities, according to the Maine Department of Public Safety.
John Gagnon, 56, whose last known address was in Turner in 2012, nearly struck Trooper Diane Perkins-Vance in Sidney late Thursday morning and fled from her as she tried to stop him, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland.
The trooper pursued Gagnon into Manchester, but Perkins-Vance lost sight of him when the car turned onto a narrow wooded road off of Route 202, McCausland said.
Other state troopers, Kennebec County sheriff’s deputies and Augusta police converged on the area searching for the vehicle for about a half-hour, and during that time, the license plates apparently were switched from a New Hampshire plate to a Massachusetts plate, McCausland said.
Police later spotted the vehicle on Puddle Dock Road in Manchester, but Gagnon again refused to stop, speeding as high as 80 mph on Route 27 back toward Augusta, McCausland said.
The chase was terminated on Leighton Road in Augusta when Gagnon’s vehicle was spun out using a pit maneuver, McCausland said.
Gagnon has a lengthy criminal record in Maine, including several stints in jail, McCausland said. The spokesman added that Gagnon “now faces a variety of charges” from the pursuit but did not specify what they were. He was brought to the Kennebec County Jail
