Teens shoot, kill grazing horses > Tractor-trailer also fired upon Saturday

PITTSFIELD – Two 16-year-old male juveniles using high-powered rifles allegedly shot and killed two horses Saturday while the animals were grazing in a pasture on the Webb Road in Pittsfield.

The juveniles, one from Pittsfield and the other from Waterville, are also suspected of shooting at a tractor-trailer that was northbound on Interstate 95 and of shooting at some signs in the area shortly before the horses were killed, according to Sgt. Douglas Tibbetts of the Maine Warden Service.

A bullet that struck the tractor-trailer at about 8 a.m. cut the fuel line and ended up in the fuel tank. Tibbetts said. The unidentified driver, who was not injured, stopped and called police. The shooting occurred in the same area as the Webb Road. The Warden Service is handling the horse shootings while Maine State Police are investigating the tractor-trailer shooting.

Wardens are not classifying the shootings of the horses as a hunting accident, although the juveniles were dressed in blaze orange and had hunting licenses, because they say the youths deliberately caused the death of the animals. “They sat down and deliberately did this,” warden Sgt. Chris Simmons said Saturday. “Their mission was to kill something, this was no mistaken identity.”

Tibbetts, one of eight game wardens who responded to the incident, said the juveniles were seen leaving the railroad after the shootings by a warden pilot, who happened to be flying overhead in the region. In addition, tracking dogs with the state police lead investigators to a nearby Pittsfield residence where the juveniles had allegedly fled after the shooting. Three shotguns and a .30-caliber rifle were confiscated from the home by law enforcement officials.

Simmons said the juveniles, who confessed to the shootings, were not charged or arrested, but were released to their parents. He said he would speak Monday with the Somerset County district attorney about the case.

Pam Pelotte of Somerset Stables, who owned one of the two horses that was killed – a 12-year-old gelding racehorse – was outraged by the shootings. She said Sunday that she had asked law enforcement officials to bring the juveniles back to the farm so they could dig a hole to bury the animals, an effort she thought might teach them a lesson. Her request had to be denied, however, until the case can be processed.

Pelotte said a neighbor, who had been driving by the pasture, had seen the two hunters on the railroad tracks that run parallel to the pasture about 200 yards away at about 8:30 a.m. and had also noticed a horse lying on the ground. The neighbor reported the information to Pelotte.

When Pelotte arrived in the pasture a few seconds later, she found one horse dead and her horse, “Have At It,” suffering from a bullet hole in his stomach. She said her horse “came and put his head like in my chest and then died; he died in my arms.”

The other horse that was killed belonged to the daughter of her fiance, Dr. Timothy Powers. The 8-year-old quarter horse gelding had been shot twice in the chest. Seven other horses in the pasture, all pregnant brood mares, were spared, she said.

“I was shocked to think that someone could be this malicious,” Pelotte said.

Pelotte said her racehorse had participated in races throughout the state and had winnings of about $5,000 to $8,000 each year.

Autopsies were done on both horses to retrieve the bullets used in the killings.

Both Simmons and Tibbetts praised the cooperation the wardens received from the Pittsfield Police Department, the Maine State Police and local citizens in the investigation.