State police are investigating the shooting death early Saturday morning of a Chelsea resident outside a West Gardiner home.
The shooting, which took the life of James Haskell, 41, took place off Yeaton Drive, off Hallowell-Litchfield Road.
Haskell was dead when police arrived, according to Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. There is no indication that the shooting was a suicide, he said.
Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office deputies went to the scene in response to a 911 call from the home about 2:45 a.m. Saturday. State police detectives joined them there later.
A number of people were at the home for a gathering at the time of the shooting, according to McCausland, and all were cooperating and were interviewed by police. No one was in custody as of Saturday afternoon as police continued to investigate the circumstances of the death.
McCausland said all circumstances of the shooting are being looked into by detectives. He said police probably would be at the scene most of Saturday.
An autopsy is expected to take place at the state medical examiner’s office.
“We will take the interviews, the medical examination information, and compile that with the evidence from the scene as we try to determine the circumstances under which the shooting occurred,” McCausland said.
He said Haskell had lived in several other locations in the Augusta area.
No other details about the shooting were available late Saturday.
Haskell’s criminal history record from the state Bureau of Identification shows numerous past convictions, including criminal mischief, burglary, theft, forgery, aggravated criminal mischief, burglary of a motor vehicle, assault, gross sexual assault, criminal threatening, trafficking in prison contraband, eluding an officer, failure to comply with the sex offender registration act, unlawful possession of a scheduled drug, and violating condition of release,
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