PORTLAND – A Bangor man was in critical condition at Maine Medical Center on Sunday night after he was shot by police while being pursued as a suspect in a reported burglary on Allen Avenue, according to Portland police.

Jonathan Mitchell, 29, was arrested at 6:20 a.m. — nearly two hours after the pursuit began — in an apartment at 150 Washington Ave.

Mitchell is charged with criminal trespass, operating after revocation of his driver’s license as a habitual offender, eluding a police officer, theft by unauthorized use and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon (his vehicle).

The chase began around 4:40 a.m., when officers went to 94 Allen Ave. in response to a 911 call reporting a residential burglary in progress, said Lt. Gary Rogers, public information officer.

Mitchell fled in a black Volkswagen Jetta, which officers soon spotted traveling on Washington Avenue, near Inverness Street. The officers pursued it, but the driver refused to stop.

The officers followed the vehicle onto Veranda Street and then onto Fairfield Street, a short, dead-end lane that runs perpendicular to Interstate 295.

Mitchell was shot on Fairfield Street, under circumstances that Rogers wouldn’t discuss. Still, Mitchell drove away in the Jetta, traveling west on Veranda Street, where officers lost contact with the vehicle.

Around 6:20 a.m., officers found the Jetta parked and unoccupied near 150 Washington Ave., a three-unit apartment building in the East End neighborhood. They found Mitchell, suffering from a gunshot wound, in an apartment at that address.

Mitchell was arrested and taken by ambulance to Maine Medical Center, where he was operated on Sunday, according to The Associated Press.

He was in critical condition Sunday night, a nursing supervisor said. He is under police watch because of the charges filed against him, Rogers said.

Portland Police Chief James Craig declined to name the police officer who was involved in the shooting, saying only that he has been placed on paid administrative leave.

But Brian MacMaster, director of investigations for the Maine Attorney General’s Office, identified the officer Sunday as Patrolman Robert Miller.

MacMaster said the preliminary inquiry shows that Mitchell had no gun, but that he used his vehicle as a weapon against the officers — the reason he was charged with reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon.

MacMaster said he could provide no additional details on the shooting. The Attorney General’s Office will investigate and issue a report on whether the use of deadly force was justified, a procedure that is standard practice in police shootings.

It could be several months before the state report is released, MacMaster said.

No officers were injured in the chase. Rogers said a news conference may be held today at a time to be determined, but he would provide no additional details of the incident.

Fairfield Street was blocked to traffic until 1 p.m. Sunday as police detectives interviewed residents and officers involved in the case, said Cheryl Wallace, who lives in one of four houses on the street.

Sirens and gunfire woke Wallace and her family around 5 a.m. Her husband, Charles, said he heard two pops and knew they were gunshots.

“He jumped out of bed,” she said.

Wallace pointed to lines that she said police painted on the street to show where the suspect drove the Jetta. The lines indicate that Mitchell drove to the end of the lane, made a sharp U-turn onto a neighbor’s lawn and headed back out to Veranda Street.

A 28-year Fairfield Street resident, Wallace said incidents involving police have grown more common in her neighborhood, in part due to its proximity to I-295.

MacMaster said the Portland shooting is the third incident in Maine this year in which a police officer has used deadly force.

• In January, Andrew Landry was shot and killed at a mobile home in Lyman while threatening two York County sheriff’s deputies with a pair of knives, even after being shocked with a Taser. Sgt. Kyle Kassa, who fired the fatal shots, was placed on administrative leave with pay.

Landry’s bizarre behavior began hours earlier when emergency personnel were called to Landry’s home in Sanford after his grandmother found the 22-year-old man out in the snow in only his pants and one sock.

• In March, 39-year-old Katherine Paulson was shot by Kennebunk Police Officer Joshua Morneau, who was responding to the report of a domestic disturbance at Paulson’s Kennebunk home.

Morneau shot and killed the woman after she confronted him with a weapon. The state Medical Examiner’s Office said Paulson died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Morneau and Sgt. Juliet Gilman, who was at the home at the time of the shooting, were placed on administrative leave.

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:

kbouchard@pressherald.com

 

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