Aaron Bouchard Photo courtesy Cumberland County Jail
An exchange of gunfire Wednesday between police officers and a Saco man ended in the man’s arrest on charges including attempted murder, Gorham police said. No injuries were reported.
The incident in the 200 block of Narragansett Street, part of Route 202, began around 11:30 a.m., when Saco police requested help finding Aaron Bouchard, 25, who was possibly armed and suicidal, in connection with a domestic violence incident there, Gorham police said in a statement Wednesday night.
Gorham officers found Bouchard’s vehicle at the entrance to a recently cleared lot in the woods and began communicating with him via text message, Deputy Chief Christopher Sanborn said in the statement. Bouchard refused to come out of the woods and police set up a perimeter, Sanborn said.
“After a period of communication, Mr. Bouchard came out into the open lot and fired in the direction of the officers. A Gorham police officer returned fire and Mr. Bouchard retreated into the woods,” Sanborn said in the statement.
Police officers were about 100 yards away when Bouchard fired his weapon three or four times.
Bouchard was eventually located by Gorham police and members of the Cumberland County Emergency Services Unit and taken into custody without incident. He was transported to the Cumberland County Jail in Portland where he was charged with attempted murder, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and terrorizing, police said.
A jail intake worker said that Bouchard was being held without bail.
Gorham police are investigating, and Sanborn did not name the officer who fired at Bouchard.
The state Attorney General’s Office is investigating the use of force by the Gorham officer, as required by state law.
According to the AG’s office, there were six officer involved shootings in Maine in 2016 and eight in 2015. Of the 14, four were fatal and one was a suicide.
In January, Jon M. Alspaugh was shot and killed by Waldoboro police officer John Lash, but the complete list of officer involved shootings in Maine this year was not available from the AG’s office Wednesday evening.
Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:
dhoey@pressherald.com
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