Michael Reis, 24, of New Sharon, was shot and killed in the driveway of a Wilton home, Maine State Police said Wednesday.
Lt. Brian McDonough of the state police said at a news conference at the scene at 259 Weld Road that police have identified the shooter, but he didn’t release his name. McDonough wouldn’t comment on the circumstances surrounding the shooting, but said police don’t believe the public is in danger.
It was the state’s sixth homicide of the year, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. The state usually has 20 to 25 homicides in a year.
McDonough said someone made a 911 call from the residence at 12:45 a.m. reporting that someone had been shot. He said there were several people at the residence at the time of the shooting and they were cooperating with the investigation. Police wouldn’t release the names of those who had been at the scene, or specify their relationship to Reis or the alleged shooter.
McDonough said Reis was taken by a friend to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. McCausland later confirmed that the hospital was Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, about 10 minutes from the home.
A neighbor, David Crockett Jr., said he was not sure who lived at the mobile home, though it appeared that someone was moving out on Tuesday, with several truckloads of furniture being moved from the home.
The mobile home is owned by Alan Magrath, according to town records. It was not clear if Magrath lived at the mobile home or was renting it out.
No one has been arrested or charged in connection to the shooting, McDonough said.
“I don’t think anyone else is in danger here,” he said. “We’re starting to get a feeling of what took place.”
McCausland said an autopsy was being conducted on Reis at the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta.
McCausland said in a statement that “detectives plan to conduct a number of interviews to determine the circumstances of the shooting.” He said the Farmington Police Department is helping with the interviews.
Blood was visible in the dirt driveway of the mobile home and down the center of the road toward town as state police investigators worked at the scene.
Weld Road is Route 156, and the area where the shooting took place is outside of town, near Wilson Lake Country Club – a quiet wooded neighborhood of modest homes about 100 yards apart from each other.
McDonough said there probably wouldn’t be any more information available Wednesday and investigators expected to be at the scene throughout the day processing evidence and talking to neighbors.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
