The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man armed with a hatchet Thursday after a daylong standoff at his mother’s home in Standish.
It was the second such encounter that John Siciliani, 30, has had with sheriff’s deputies this year.
Officers had spent a week trying to locate and arrest Siciliani on multiple felony warrants, some stemming from the standoff at a Bridgton motel in June, which ended when he and his father surrendered to police and were charged.
Sheriff Kevin Joyce said Siciliani had been staying at his mother’s home on Littlefield Road near Sebago Lake for the past few days, and that deputies tried but were unable to apprehend him Wednesday.
“We did try to make contact with him yesterday,” Joyce said during the standoff, which ended about 2:20 p.m. Thursday. “We didn’t have a lot of evidence he was there, even though his mom said he was in the house. Today, it’s definite he’s in the house, and he’s just (had) very erratic behavior.”
His family told police that Siciliani, who suffers from mental health problems and has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, had been acting erratically Thursday morning. Family members fled from the home when he began waving a hatchet. He had broken some windows in the home and donned what deputies called a protective vest, Joyce said.
A tactical team arrived around 10 a.m., Joyce said, and spent hours negotiating with him.
Siciliani had been wanted on two counts each of aggravated assault and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, as well as violating conditions of his bail, Joyce said.
Bridgton police had previously tried to arrest Siciliani after a traffic stop Dec. 13. After an argument with the officer, Siciliani fled in his vehicle, Bridgton Police Chief Richard Stillman said.
That chase was called off for safety reasons. Maine State Police located Siciliani a short time later and pursued him, but that chase was also called off.
Although the cost of using a tactical team is high, the high-speed car chases are dangerous both for officers and the suspect, Stillman said. Stillman’s department was not involved in the execution of the arrest warrants Thursday, although his officers have had contact with Siciliani in the past.
“This guy needs to be off the streets, but we didn’t want to do it in a situation where we were physically chasing him,” Stillman said.
After Thursday’s incident, Siciliani faced new charges of violating conditions of release and creating a police standoff.
Siciliani has a criminal record that stretches back to 2005, including multiple arrests and convictions for assault and other violent crimes.
Before the standoff in June, his most recent encounter with police occurred in November 2013, when he was arrested by state police in Hollis after a stabbing.
In that case, state police said, Siciliani and another man were intoxicated when they showed up at a home on Chadbourne Ridge Road and began to fight each other. In the process, a bystander was stabbed in the leg. State records indicate Siciliani was charged with aggravated assault and criminal threatening, and was sentenced to serve 352 days in jail in December 2015.
In June, Siciliani and his father, John A. Connolly, 53, barricaded themselves in the First and Last Motel on Portland Road, which is part of Route 302.
Siciliani allegedly assaulted another person at the motel but left the property. When he returned the next day, police were called and Siciliani barricaded himself in a room with his father.
No one was hurt, but the tactical team spent five hours talking to Siciliani before he was taken into custody.
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