BANGOR, Maine — A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of a man who was shot and killed 2½ years ago by a Hampden police officer has been dismissed at the request of Charles Arrigoni, 53, of Winterport.
Arrigoni’s 21-year-old son, Cameron Arrigoni, died on June 9, 2013, of gunshot wounds to the head and upper torso, according to a previously published report.
Edward Benjamin, the Portland attorney who represents Sgt. Christian Bailey, the officer who shot Arrigoni, and the town, said that no settlement was paid out.
“The Arrigoni family decided to dismiss the lawsuit,” he said Wednesday.
Lewiston attorney Verne E. Paradie Jr., who represents the family, declined to comment Wednesday.
The stipulation of dismissal with prejudice was filed on Nov. 24 in U.S. District Court in Bangor, according to the court’s electronic case filing system. “With prejudice” means it may not be filed again.
The Maine attorney general’s office found in October 2013 that Bailey, a more than 20-year veteran of the Hampden Police Department, was justified in using deadly force against Arrigoni. That decision would have had no effect on the case, Benjamin said earlier this year when the case was moved at his request to federal court from Penobscot County Superior Court.
The incident on June 9, 2013, that led to Arrigoni’s death began when he told his live-in girlfriend that he was going to commit suicide and got a gun out of his car, the attorney general’s office said in its report on the shooting. She called 911 about 9:15 p.m. but hung up when he again threatened to kill himself.
When Bailey and Officer William Miller arrived, Arrigoni was trying to break down the locked door of the bedroom where the girlfriend had gone in an attempt to call 911 again, the report said. As the officers ascended the stairs to the second floor of the residence, they heard Arrigoni shouting to his girlfriend.
Bailey noted the broken bedroom door and yelled, “Police,” as he crossed the threshold of the room, the attorney general’s office said. Arrigoni, who was standing next to his girlfriend at the foot of the bed in the small bedroom, turned toward Bailey and pointed a loaded .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol at him. Bailey fired two rounds from his .45-caliber service weapon at Arrigoni, who was struck by the gunfire and fell to the floor.
Arrigoni was taken to a Bangor hospital where he was pronounced dead, the report said.
His blood alcohol level was 0.183 at the time of his death, more than twice Maine’s legal limit of 0.08 for operating a vehicle, according to a previously published report. A moderate amount of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, also was found in his system.
The lawsuit had sought compensatory and punitive damages, including hospital and funeral expenses, and attorney’s fees.