Sheriff negotiates second armed standoff

ELLSWORTH – In his 30 years in law enforcement, Hancock County Sheriff William Clark has negotiated over the phone with an armed person only twice.

The first experience, 11 years ago, was his immediate thought Monday when he heard that Rodney E. Williams, 27, was holed up in a Main Street business with a gun.

Clark said the situation Monday was different from what he encountered in 1991 when an Ellsworth man had a rifle in a High Street hair salon. In that standoff, Richard Balestrino was holding his ex-girlfriend hostage and was not hurt, Clark said.

Williams did not take anyone hostage Monday, but Clark said the crisis was more urgent because Williams had been shot.

“We didn’t have much time here,” Clark said. A state police negotiator was headed to the scene, Clark said, but because of the urgency, and the fact that Williams had been incarcerated at the Hancock County Jail, he decided to try to contact him.

Clark climbed onto the roof of the business across the street so he could be more visible to Williams, he said.

The sheriff had to use a cordless phone from a Main Street business because his cell phone wouldn’t work in that part of Ellsworth. Clark called the Shoegazer store twice and got the answering machine both times, he said. He was worried that Williams had passed out from his injuries or perhaps even died, he said.

But Williams answered the third call.

“I really believe he wanted to come out,” Clark said. “He didn’t want to die in there.”

Clark said Williams was concerned he would be shot by police. He wanted Clark to enter the store to escort him out. Clark said he would not do that, but convinced Williams to walk backward out of the business with his hands in the air. The store’s front door was not latched and Williams was able to push the door open without his hands, Clark said.

“Thankfully, he was able to walk and talk,” Clark said.

In May 1991, Clark spoke with Balestrino for three hours before the man, then 22, came out of the salon to talk to his sister. Balestrino had let his only hostage go 90 minutes before he came out and was subdued by police. He later was sentenced to five-year concurrent prison terms on several charges from that case.

Clark said Monday he called Balestrino in the salon while a state police negotiator was on his way to the standoff. He established a rapport with Balestrino and continued to talk to him over the phone after the negotiator arrived, he said.

Clark, who worked for the Ellsworth Police Department for eight years before he became sheriff in 1981, said he couldn’t recall other such situations in his career. If someone with a gun becomes involved in another standoff, he said, he would be willing to be the one to call the person.

“It has worked twice before,” Clark said.