AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office released findings Friday that four law enforcement officers were legally justified in using deadly force in fatal shootings in Old Town and Falmouth.
The conclusions were reached in separate incidents, one in which a man engaged in an armed standoff in Old Town and another in which a man wielded a knife at an intersection in Falmouth.
In Old Town, a Maine State Police officer and a detective discharged their weapons in a standoff in which Thomas A. Powell III, 31, fired at officers and neighbors. He was brandishing a rifle with a scope when he was shot on April 14, 2020, investigators said.
In Falmouth, a pair of officers discharged their weapons after Daniel DiMillo, 51, of Falmouth, approached with a knife as they responded to a report of an armed man. DiMillo approached an officer with a knife and refused orders to drop it on Oct. 19, 2021, investigators said.
Maine law allows police officers to use deadly force to protect themselves or others from an imminent threat. In both cases, the officers who discharged their weapons were acting in self defense or the defense of others, Frey wrote.
