Investigators believe a man fatally shot nearly a year ago at a Saco home had arrived in the early morning hours seeking sex, a state police spokesman confirmed Monday.
Police consider the shooting an act of self-defense on the part of a man renting the 26 Nye St. house and will not charge the man for the fatal shooting, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said.
Michael Burns, 54, died after being shot on the front porch of the home just before 1:30 a.m. Sept. 30, 2017, according to police.
Burns was reportedly a Berwick Academy graduate, a U.S. Army veteran, a self-employed computer technician and an active member of his New Hampshire community as a longtime Boy Scout troop leader there. Friends and family told the Portland Press Herald previously they were baffled by a lack of charges against anyone and frustrated by months of silence from police over what happened to the man they considered gentle and non-confrontational.
Now, police have released details about what they believe transpired.
Investigators believe Burns was responding to a post on the website Craigslist.org seeking sex and paid a woman at the home $100, McCausland confirmed Monday. However, he did not have sex with the woman, and an argument broke out between Burns and a man renting the home, he said.
Burns went to his car, got a knife and returned to the house, where the tenant shot him in self-defense, McCausland said.
The tenant has not been identified publicly because he has not been charged with a crime.
Although state police have decided not to charge the man for the fatal shooting, the Press Herald reported Monday that local police and prosecutors have not ruled out charges related to other actions that may have taken place that night.
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