ROCKLAND – A Maine State Police tactical team found a 59-year-old man dead inside his home Tuesday from a gunshot wound to the head, after several hours of attempted negotiations with him.

Shortly after hearing one gunshot fired around 4 p.m., state police sent a robot inside the house which relayed images of a pair of feet from around a corner of an alcove near the kitchen. Tactical team members went inside the home at 1 Orange St. and discovered Leonard Salvo dead from a gunshot wound to the head, according to Rockland Deputy Police Chief Wallace Tower. Police believe a .38-caliber pistol or similar weapon was used in the suicide.

Salvo had a history of alcohol use and abuse, Tower said, and police had been to the home on several occasions for health and welfare issues.

A call from Salvo’s live-in companion, Donna Tourjee, around 12:30 p.m. alerted police that Salvo was despondent, had a gun to his head and was threatening to kill himself, Rockland Police Chief Alfred Ockenfels said. Salvo also had been seeing a psychiatrist, whom police contacted for possible negotiations, the chief said. Police advised Tourjee to leave the house, which she did without any difficulty.

During the ordeal, Tourjee sat inside a cruiser waiting with a neighbor and occasionally stepped outside the vehicle to have a cigarette.

About an hour after the initial call, the tactical team and other state police arrived.

The tactical team wore camouflage clothing, dark full-face ski masks and toted black assault rifles as they surrounded the neighborhood. Before the team’s arrival, city police evacuated nearby homes and cordoned off the area.

Salvo had barricaded himself inside the home and refused to talk with police or Tourjee before she left the house. While he was alone, he did not respond to numerous telephone calls or faxes that police sent to the home, Tower said. Police also had established a designated telephone line with New England Telephone and Verizon, he said.

Police were unsuccessful in making contact with him.

It was believed that Salvo had multiple firearms at his disposal, Ockenfels said.

In the midst of the ordeal, schoolchildren were being released from schools, so police contacted SAD 5 officials to keep children from that neighborhood at school until parents could get them.

Ockenfels praised the work of the tactical team, saying how courageous those men and women are.

“It’s a valuable service,” he said, pointing to a situation 16 years ago when two Rockland officers were shot while responding to a call in a nearby neighborhood. “They’re like the special forces of the military … ready to go in a moment’s notice. They’re a very elite unit.”

After the tactical team departed, Rockland officers were preparing to process evidence from the scene to turn over to the state medical examiner’s office.

One of Salvo’s neighbors standing near the scene said she did not know Salvo well, but that she waved to him every day when she walks and he would return the gesture.

“He’s the nicest, kindest person,” Judith Steeves said.

Neighbor Erik Brann said, “He seemed like a really congenial guy.”

Brann bartends at the Aleyard Tavern, which he said Salvo frequented. He said the victim moved to Rockland from New York state a couple of years ago and worked at MBNA. He offered assistance to police to try to coax Salvo out of the house.

“It’s an unfortunate outcome,” Tower said.