WEST GARDINER — Police have interviewed, but not charged, the person who allegedly shot and killed a Chelsea man outside a Yeaton Drive home early Saturday morning.
James Haskell, 41, was shot outside the home and was dead when police arrived in response to a 911 call from the home around 2:45 a.m. Saturday.
Police interviewed everyone who was at the home, which was the site of a gathering of a number of people, and said all were cooperative.
Among them, according to Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, was the person, who he declined to name, involved in the shooting of Haskell. McCausland said the person is not currently considered a “suspect” because it has not been determined whether or not a crime occurred.
He said detectives collected forensic evidence from the scene Saturday which will be reviewed as police work to determine what happened to result in Haskell’s shooting death.
“Everyone who was there, and the person involved in the shooting, has been interviewed,” McCausland said Sunday. “We know everyone that was involved, and spoken to everyone. We’ll compare that information with the evidence from the scene, and the medical examiner’s input, then we’ll sit down and review all that to determine the next steps.”
McCausland said an autopsy was expected to be done on Haskell Sunday or Monday.
James Haskell’s stepmother, Allison Haskell, told WCSH 6 on Saturday that she found out her from Facebook that her stepson had died.
“[I hope] that people would realize the lifestyle — and I know it had nothing to do with drugs — but the lifestyle that comes along with this whole realm of drugs, and all that stuff,” she told the television station. “It’s nothing but trouble. It will cause you pain and your family pain for the rest of your life.”
She said she hadn’t seen her stepson lately and that he was working to get his life together.
“I know there’s a lot of rumors going on out there about what he did or what he didn’t do,” she said. “I don’t know if they’re true or not. And at this point, we care — we don’t want anyone hurt, we never have. But it doesn’t matter. We loved him, and he’s gone.”
Yeaton Drive, where the shooting occurred, is a short private road across Hallowell-Litchfield Road from Fuller’s Market. There did not appear to be any police activity there Sunday.
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.
McCausland said Haskell’s most recent residence was in Chelsea but he had lived in several other locations in the Augusta area.
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.
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
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