Portland police investigating the fatal shooting of a man in a Gilman Street apartment are asking that anyone with street-facing security cameras at residences or businesses in the area to contact police.
Police made the request Friday as detectives entered their third full day of investigation since David Anderson, a homeless Portland man, was shot to death and another man was wounded in the apartment at 88 Gilman St. shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday.
“If you have video and you think it faces the street, please call us,” said Lt. James Sweatt, a spokesman for the Portland Police Department.
The apartment building where the shooting took place is just off Congress Street, between the Maine Medical Center campus and Hadlock Field. Police are looking for video from the surrounding area, from as far east as Mellen Street to as far west as Denny’s restaurant by the Interstate 295 underpass, Sweatt said.
Police received many tips from the public on Wednesday and Thursday, and detectives are now following up on some of those for leads, Sweatt said.
Surveillance camera footage from inside the apartment building where Anderson was killed shows a light-skinned man dressed in dark clothing with a hood, a red-striped hat and white sneakers walking in the hallway inside around 11:06 p.m. and leaving the building through a door at 11:08 p.m. Police received a 911 call at 11:09 p.m.
Police have described the man, who is about 6 feet tall with a medium build, both as a person of interest and a suspect. He was last seen running from the building onto Gilman Street.
Anderson, 36, and the man who was wounded, whom police have yet to identify, were shot while visiting a third man who lives in Apartment 305 at 88 Gilman St., a building owned by Shalom House, a nonprofit that serves adults with mental illnesses.
“We believe he went to that specific apartment. We don’t know what the motives are,” Sweatt said of the man shown in the surveillance camera footage.
The second shooting victim was treated and released from a hospital and has returned home. The man who lives at Apartment 305 has since left to stay with a relative at an undisclosed location.
Police have released only two still images of the suspect on the surveillance footage and have so far refused to release the full video or more still images. Sweatt would not say why police won’t release more images, but said the department may do so if detectives decide it may help their investigation.
Police will not say how many shots were fired inside the apartment or what type of gun was used. They have also refused to release a recording of the 911 call or a transcript of what was said in the call.
They have also refused to say whether the shooter spoke with the victims before firing. But Sweatt has said that nothing was stolen and that the police believe the shooter went there with violent intent.
Anderson, whose most recent address was listed as the Oxford Street Shelter, had a criminal record dating to 1997, including a felony burglary charge and several minor drug and theft charges. His most recent offenses were mostly drug related, according to records at the Cumberland County Courthouse.
Anderson was released from jail most recently on Feb. 5 after serving 20 days for a probation violation on a felony charge of cocaine possession. His probation officer filed another request with the court on March 1, asking for Anderson’s probation to be revoked for new violations.
Anyone who saw the shooting or has information about it is asked to call police at 874-8533 or 874-8575.
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