PORTLAND – Police are trying to determine who assaulted a 39-year-old Portland man Wednesday night, triggering a six-hour standoff that ended peacefully early Thursday.
Police say they seized two ounces of crack cocaine, worth $4,000, on the property on Magnolia Street but not in the apartment where five people refused to come out, prompting the standoff.
Police charged one juvenile, on an outstanding arrest warrant.
The man, who showed up on Allen Avenue about 7 p.m. Wednesday covered with blood, told police that he was visiting friends when some men suddenly came into the apartment and beat him up, police said.
They dragged him into a room and left him there, then returned and beat him again. He said he thought he had been stabbed before he passed out. When he regained consciousness, no one was there, he told police.
He made his way to 55 Allen Ave., where he had someone call an ambulance. Rescue workers treated him for cuts and puncture wounds.
The man could not tell police the address of the house where he had been beaten, but they followed a trail of blood that led them to Magnolia Street, a short dead-end dirt road.
Officers tried to get the people inside 43 Magnolia St. to surrender, using a loudspeaker to tell them they were surrounded and they had to come out, said a neighbor, George Vincent.
Police said the occupants did not respond. Because of the potential for violence, the department activated its Special Reaction Team, which forced its way into the building.
Police found evidence that the attack had happened in a vacant first-floor apartment, which has no heat or electricity, said Lt. Scott Pelletier, head of the detectives division and the Special Reaction Team.
About 1 a.m. Thursday, police forced their way into the second-floor apartment, where they found five people, none of them residents of the building, Pelletier said.
A search of the property turned up cocaine and evidence related to the assault, although Pelletier would not elaborate.
“It illustrates the correlation between drugs and violence in a relatively nice, quiet neighborhood,” Pelletier said.
Police have interviewed the owner of the building and the registered tenant. They have not yet charged anyone in the assault.
The victim was taken to Maine Medical Center, where he was treated for injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, police said.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com
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