FREEPORT, Maine — Maine State Police are investigating whether a 65-year-old Portland man who shot himself three times with a flare gun Tuesday morning on Interstate 295 was attempting to commit suicide.
The man was taken by Freeport rescue personnel to Maine Medical Center with burns and injuries to his head, according to a news release from Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
He was listed in critical condition Tuesday afternoon, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Local and state police initially responded Tuesday morning to reports of a man with gunshot wounds in a pickup truck on I-295 northbound near the Brunswick town line.
McCausland said shortly before noon that the man shot himself in the head with a flare gun.
Two motorists, Jayson Forgues, 42, of Freeport and Paul Oleston, 48, of Topsham, stopped to help the man. Forgues used his fire extinguisher to put out a fire in the cab of the man’s truck, and Oleston helped pull the man to safety, McCausland said.
The pickup truck had been modified to run on propane, according to the release, and a propane tank in the truck’s bed likely would have exploded if the fire had gotten out of control.