The Associated Press
LAMOINE, Maine — Gunfire erupted outside a home in a small coastal town in Maine early Sunday, killing one man and leaving three others wounded, state police said as they worked to determine what led to the violence and who pulled the trigger.
Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said Lawrence “Randy” Sinclair, 32, of Ellsworth, died at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor on Sunday, hours after being shot, along with the others, outside a home in Lamoine.
Authorities said Torrey Garland, 34, of Ellsworth, was hospitalized in life-threatening condition. Also injured in the shooting were Michael Carter, 30, of Lamoine, and Joshua McKinney, 35, of Ellsworth. Officials say the injuries to Carter and McKinney are not considered life-threatening. McKinney was in an Ellsworth hospital but the others were taken to EMMC.
The shootings took place at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday at the single-family home of Carter and Tacy Mullins, 22.
Detectives were investigating the circumstances of the shootings to see if they lead to a suspect, McCausland said. A fifth man also was at the house at the time was not injured. Police did not identify that man.
The violence took place outside the home along Douglas Highway in the rural town of about 1,800 people. By Sunday morning, crime tape surrounded the home, which is partially hidden by trees, said Stu Marckoon, a resident and town employee. Streams of residents walked and drove past to get a look throughout the day, and the violence didn’t seem to shake the community, he said.
The Bangor Daily News reported that according to police reports, a man with the same name, age and hometown as Sinclair was involved in an accident involving a vehicle and a utility pole late Saturday afternoon near the scene of the shooting.
Officer Tom Burgess of the Holden Police Department told the newspaper that the driver got distracted and lost control of his 2002 Ford Explorer. He struck a utility pole.
“He cut (the pole) right off,” Burgess said.
State Police Lt. Chris Coleman told the newspaper, “We have several different versions of what happened. ... Whether that was related, we’re still trying to determine.”
Lamoine, about 30 miles east of Bangor, serves primarily as a bedroom community for the nearby busy commercial city of Ellsworth, said Town Selectman Richard Fennelly Jr. Residents include a mix of longtime coastal Mainers and new families who’ve moved in, he said.
Maine records about 24 homicides per year. In February, a firefighter from Florida who had been missing in Maine was the victim of what police called a drug-related murder in the rural town of Jackson.