Ruling justifies officer’s shooting

AUGUSTA – Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe has ruled that state police Sgt. James Urquhart was justified when he shot and killed a man after a three-hour standoff in Poland last month.

Christopher Pullen, 36, of Mechanic Falls was fatally shot in the early morning of May 6 after he pointed a shotgun and rifle at Urquhart and another state trooper, according to an attorney general’s investigation.

The attorney general is required by law to review all instances in which a law enforcement officer uses deadly force on duty.

In this case, Rowe said Urquhart was justified in the shooting because he believed that deadly force was threatened against him, and that deadly force was necessary to protect himself and another officer.

The incident began at about 11 p.m. May 5 when Pullen confronted his estranged girlfriend and threatened to kill her and himself, the investigation revealed. Pullen also is suspected of setting his own house on fire that night.

When police caught up to Pullen, he was parked in his pickup truck on the side of state Route 121, armed with a shotgun, a rifle and a knife, the report states.

Over the next three hours, Pullen drank several cans of beer, repeatedly threatened police negotiators and tried to coax police into shooting him, the investigation concluded.

Pullen eventually strapped a soft cooler full of beer onto his body and walked into a field, where he encountered Urquhart and Trooper Blaine Bronson, Rowe said.

The officers twice released a police dog on Pullen, but the dog wouldn’t attack him. As Urquhart attempted to release the dog a third time, Pullen turned toward him and Bronson and warned them not to release the dog.

The report says Pullen then raised the rifle and shotgun, did not heed commands to drop the weapons, and began walking toward the officers. That is when Urquhart fired two rounds, both of which struck Pullen 56 feet away, the report says.

Pullen was taken to a hospital in Lewiston, where he later died of gunshot wounds.