Police seek suspect in deputy’s stabbing

MACHIAS – The Washington County Sheriff’s Department released a composite sketch Wednesday of the suspect who stabbed a deputy in Lubec.

Sheriff Joseph Tibbetts said Deputy Jamie Denbow, a contract patrol officer for Lubec, was stabbed in the upper leg Tuesday night when he stopped to help a man who appeared to be lost.

The wound required three stitches, and Denbow was treated briefly at Down East Community Hospital after the incident, the sheriff said.

Tibbetts said doctors had to remove the weapon from the deputy’s leg. The plastic-handled knife had a blade that appeared to have been filed down to 11/4 inch.

Tibbetts said Denbow was on routine patrol in the Dixie section of Lubec about 9:45 p.m. when he saw a black late-model Ford Ranger pulled to the side of Route 191, near the former Fitzhenry’s store.

It was raining and windy and the driver was in front of the car, using the headlights to look at what appeared to be a map, the sheriff said. Denbow put his emergency lights on and pulled over, commenting as he got out of his cruiser that the person appeared to be lost.

“The subject said he was going to Portland and was lost,” Tibbetts said. “As Jamie got close to him, he brought his right hand out from under the map and jabbed a paring knife toward Jamie’s midsection.”

Tibbetts said that when Denbow saw the knife, he brought his flashlight down on the person’s hand. The blade entered Denbow’s left leg and the deputy grabbed at it as he fell to the ground, the sheriff said.

Denbow started to unholster his gun, and his attacker got into the Ford Ranger and took off, headed back toward Route 189 in Lubec, the sheriff said.

Denbow, who Tibbetts said remained calm throughout the incident, radioed for an ambulance and backup.

Within minutes of the call, deputies had blocked all major routes and were checking side roads, but they failed to find the Ranger, Tibbetts said.

“I’ve patrolled this area since 1975 and I don’t know where he could have gone,” Tibbetts said.