SCARBOROUGH – An investigation continued this weekend into the fatal police shooting of a man with a rifle who was involved in a standoff in the parking lot of a Shop ‘n Save supermarket off U.S. Route 1.

An autopsy determined that James R. Levier, 60, of Scarborough, was killed by multiple gunshot wounds.

“He was struck five times,” said Brian MacMaster, director of investigations for the state Attorney General’s Office.

MacMaster said state investigators were seeking to confirm details of what police described as an exchange of gunshots between Levier and law enforcement officers in which Levier was hit after firing first Friday.

Levier had participated with a group of people seeking compensation from the state for alleged sexual and physical abuse at the Gov. Baxter School for the Deaf.

A year ago, he testified before legislators that he was a student in state-run schools for the deaf in Portland and Falmouth between 1949 and 1957. He said abuse he suffered contributed to lifelong depression, suicidal urges and violent outbursts.

“I feel like this has destroyed my life. I have gone through hell because of this,” he said at the time.

Authorities said events that led to the fatal shooting began shortly after 3 p.m. Friday, when police were notified that a man with a rifle was pacing back and forth in the parking lot of the busy shopping plaza at Oak Hill.

MacMaster said the man apparently had pulled into the lot in a white van festooned with handwritten messages relating to the rights of the deaf.

As police cordoned off the area, shoppers inside the supermarket and other stores in the shopping plaza were told to remain indoors.

An interpreter had arrived and police were trying to arrange a safe way for that person to communicate with Levier when the shooting occurred, authorities said.

Police initially said that Levier fired one shot and that three Scarborough officers and a state trooper returned fire. But Scarborough Police Chief Robert Moulton said Saturday that the sequence of events has not been determined.

“I think any time you have this kind of a situation where somebody loses a life, it’s traumatic,” Moulton said. “The officers are always going to second-guess no matter what the circumstances.”

“They’re in this business to save lives and help people, and this kind of goes against the grain,” Moulton said.

No one else was injured.

Roxanne Baker, chairwoman of the school board of Baxter School, said the school community was “very saddened by the news. He was obviously crying out for help.”

She said Levier was a spokesman for A Safer Place, a group formed by some of the former students and some advocates for the deaf.

Maine lawmakers are considering legislation to appropriate $5 million for a compensation program for former Baxter students.

In the last legislative session, $1 million was set aside.

Gov. Angus King said his proposed budget for this session did not include money to compensate the former students because the task force working on the issue did not make a request in time.

“We’ve submitted a budget that fully allocates the available resources, but what happens in cases like this is that if we and the Legislature agree, we can try to put our heads together and try to make it work,” King said.

King also said that an official apology from the state would be appropriate.

“I think wrongs were done; it was terrible,” King said. “I think the state bears a significant measure of responsibility and I think as a representative of the state, I think it’s perfectly appropriate that we apologize.”

Democratic Rep. Charles LaVerdiere of Wilton, a co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Saturday lawmakers had heard of complaints about mistreatment of deaf students dating back decades.

“The allegations go back, in fact, to the early ’60s,” he said.