BELFAST, Maine — Neighbors who witnessed a tense confrontation between a Belfast man and local police on Saturday credited the police for doing everything they could to talk the man down and said that the ending was unfortunate.
Dennis Ward, 71, of Belfast died at Waldo County General Hospital at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, more than two hours after an officer used a Taser to subdue him following an armed standoff during which Ward fired several rounds into the ground before another Belfast officer fired two shots that missed Ward. Ward “experienced medical complications” after he was shocked and handcuffed, according to a Belfast police news release.
“He wasn’t going to put that gun down to save his life,” said Christie Howie, a neighbor who witnessed the standoff.
Police were called to his home at 273 Lincolnville Ave. around 7:15 Saturday evening after a reported domestic dispute. The dispatcher heard gunshots while the caller was on the phone.
Howie, who has lived next door to Ward for the past five years, said she heard several gunshots earlier in the evening before police arrived. She said it didn’t seem unusual, because several neighbors shoot targets in the woods behind their properties, but the gunshots sounded much closer.
“We didn’t really think anything of it at the time,” Howie said. Her husband, Ernie, was working at the convenience store next door and also heard the gunshots.
Later, she saw a police cruiser, then heard shouting and watched the altercation from her back porch, which faces the side of Ward’s house.
“I heard an officer shouting ‘Dennis put down the gun! I don’t want to do this!’”
Ward repeatedly shouted back that he wasn’t going to drop the gun, according to Howie.
“They tried talking him down for a while,” Howie said, estimating that at least five and as many as 10 minutes passed before one officer fired two shots and the other used his Taser. “It seemed like it happened so quick, but it really didn’t,” Howie added.
Then she heard several shots in rapid succession, followed by the buzz of a Taser and Ward making a grunting noise. Police quickly subdued Ward and handcuffed him.
There was no ambulance on scene, according to Howie. Police brought Ward to his feet and he walked to a nearby police cruiser under his own power, she said. An officer who walked by told her they were taking Ward to the hospital to get checked out.
“I’d never known him to be like that,” Howie said of Ward, adding that he worked as a courthouse custodian in Belfast.
She said police knew Ward and had been to the home a few times in the past, responding to complaints about an aggressive dog and another instance in which he was trying to burn bushes on his property with a blowtorch hooked up to a propane tank, according to Howie.
Jordan Frankenhauser and her husband, who live across the road from Ward, were returning home while the standoff was happening. As they approached, they saw the cruisers and the officers with weapons drawn and pointed at Ward, who appeared to have a handgun in his hand.
They turned around and left the area because it didn’t seem safe and heard gunshots as they drove away.
Frankenhauser said Tuesday that she was surprised by what happened, and that Ward had seemed polite in interactions in the past. The couple moved into their home in March, and Frankenhauser said Ward helped her husband mow the lawn and at one point offered to babysit their 17-month-old son — an offer they declined.
“I wish I’d known, I wish I could have done something if I’d known something like this would happen,” Frankenhauser said.
The state medical examiner’s office completed an autopsy on Ward’s body Sunday, but the case results aren’t yet ready to be released “pending further studies,” Mark Belserene, spokesman for the office, said Tuesday.
The Maine Attorney General’s Office is conducting an investigation, as it does whenever an officer fires his gun. Police have declined to release further information until that investigation is complete.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.