AUGUSTA, Maine — Police officers have been found to be justified in three separate 2015 shootings, including one in a lengthy Bangor standoff, the Maine Attorney General’s Office announced this week.
Bangor police Officers Brian Smith and Dennis Townsend were found to be justified in firing their weapons into a Union Street residence last February. The suspect, Nicholas Condon of Portland, had fired at the officers first.
Nobody was injured in the gunfire.
Condon had driven to Bangor from his Portland residence with a 12-gauge shotgun, and had purchased ammunition for his weapon, along with duct tape, a folding knife and a propane torch kit from a Bangor store. He had been upset that his ex-girlfriend had started dating somebody else.
Condon surrendered to police after a six-hour standoff and was recently sentenced to 27 years in prison with all but 12 years suspended.
In addition, Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Deputy Kyle Wilson was found justified in the March shooting of Quinton King outside of King’s Monson residence.
In May, King pleaded guilty to criminal threatening with a firearm, harassment by telephone, and theft and was sentenced to two years in prison with all but five months suspended.
Augusta police Officer Laura Drouin was also found justified in a shooting that wounded Jason Begin outside of a city mental health facility in January.
Begin had been committed to the Riverview Psychiatric Recovery Center in 2004 after being found not criminally responsible on several sexual assault charges out of Androscoggin County.
In January of last year, Begin was suspected to have been selling marijuana to other patients at the facility, and he had skipped a required alcohol counseling session.
Begin’s record also includes a charge of stealing a plane and crashing it into a field near Montreal in 2003. Drouin had been sent to the mental health facility after workers needed assistance dealing with him.
Drouin was not injured in the incident.
