Man arrested after reportedly threatening wife

Bangor police arrested Harold Hawkes, 37, of Alton Monday evening after he allegedly wielded a baseball bat and a nonfunctioning shotgun while threatening to kill his estranged wife and two men with her.

Hawkes was charged with domestic criminal threatening and two counts of criminal threatening. The man with him, identified as Dennis Vicnaire, 41, of Bangor was summoned on a charge of assault and criminal threatening after the incident that occurred about 5:20 p.m. on Court Street.

Hawkes’ estranged wife was attending a barbecue at her sister’s home and was headed to the store with two men in a van when Vicnaire and Hawkes pulled up and blocked them in, reported Officer Allen Hayden. Hawkes approached the car with a baseball bat and a shotgun – missing the barrel – and “started to flip out,” when he saw his estranged wife in the vehicle, one witness reported.

Hawkes said he was going to kill the two men, who fled from the vehicle and ran down the street, with Hawkes in pursuit. Hawkes’ estranged wife said she tried to leave, but Vicnaire grabbed her by the arms and threw her against the car, restraining her until Hawkes returned, according to the police report. Officer James Dearing noted seeing bruising on the insides of the woman’s biceps. The woman and witnesses also said that Vicnaire struck her with the car door before he and Hawkes drove off to avoid the police.

Hawkes denied having wielded the shotgun or baseball bat, but Officer Edward A. Mercier reported finding a baseball bat in the back seat and a sheathed knife by the back window of Vicnaire’s car as well as a small hand-held crossbow and the shotgun in the trunk.