Bangor officer cleared in shooting

BANGOR – The Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday ruled a Bangor police officer was justified in last month’s shooting of a 32-year-old man on the porch of a French Street home.

In the report, Attorney General Steven Rowe determined Bangor police Officer James Buckley appropriately used deadly force in stopping the 6-foot-2, 250-pound Timothy Lever, who charged police with a wooden stake while fleeing the West Side home.

“Here you have a person, a very large individual, burst out of the house and came after the officer swinging the wooden stake like a baseball bat,” Rowe said Tuesday, explaining his decision. “And this all happened in the matter of a couple of seconds.”

Lever remains under police guard in critical condition at Eastern Maine Medical Center, where he is recovering from two gunshot wounds to the abdomen and one to the arm, police said. Lever, of Forest Avenue, was shot at close range.

Bangor Police Chief Donald Winslow on Tuesday said he was not surprised by the state’s ruling and was pleased the department could begin to put the matter to rest.

“Officer Buckley did the only thing he could have done under the circumstances, because Mr. Lever didn’t leave him any options,” said Winslow, whose department is wrapping up its own internal investigation into the matter. “I’m convinced that, given Mr. Lever’s state of mind, the officer could have been beaten to death had he not taken the action he did, or had someone else on the force not taken those actions.”

Buckley, pursuant to department regulations, remained on paid administrative leave Tuesday, but is expected to return to work next week, Winslow said.

Last week, a Penobscot County grand jury indicted Lever on several charges, including burglary and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, in connection with the home invasion and what police believe to be a related break-in at the nearby Calvary Chapel.

Lever allegedly broke into a family home through a window on the morning of April 28 and threatened the homeowner with a 1-inch-square wooden stake measuring about 3 feet in length. The family, with three children, was able to escape through the front door and call police.

Shortly after police arrived at the scene, Lever emerged wielding the stake within six to eight feet of the officers. According to the attorney general’s report, Lever immediately charged the officers, who retreated and ordered him at least three times to drop his weapon before Buckley fired.

Even after Lever was hit, his forward motion caused him to fall onto Buckley, knocking the officer down, the report states. Although struck by three bullets, Lever still resisted officers’ attempts to subdue him, state investigators found.

Less than 24 hours before the shooting, Lever had been released from the Penobscot County Jail, where he had been held in connection with a similar home invasion on Coombs Street. During his bail hearing, Lever told the judge that he had not taken his medication before the Coombs Street incident, in which he allegedly assaulted the homeowner.

Judge Ronald Russell released Lever on the condition he seek treatment for his mental illness, which his attorney had classified as schizophrenia.

Lever’s last confirmed whereabouts before the French Street shooting were the Eastern Maine Medical Center’s emergency room, where he was to be given a psychological evaluation.