Bangor man charged with brandishing gun

A Bangor man who described himself as a United States Marine was arrested early Saturday morning after he allegedly pulled a Glock handgun on a man after a fight at 198 Union St. in Bangor.

Christopher Morse, 22, had become agitated at a party earlier that night, according to witnesses, and fought with a man there.

After the fight, Morse and two friends left the house and called an Airport River City taxicab for a ride to their respective homes.

When Morse reached his Juniper Street home, he asked the driver, Bion Young, to wait a few minutes. The driver said that Morse got back into the cab with a small black case and asked to be brought back to the Union Street address.

Young told Bangor police Officer Shawn Green later that he saw Morse point a pistol in his direction when they had reached Harlow Street. When the cab reached Union Street, the driver reportedly saw Morse tuck the Glock into the waistband of his pants.

Morse knocked on the door and was let in by a man who thought he had come by to apologize, Morse told police later.

The man saw Morse pull the gun from his waist and try to put a magazine in it with his other hand. The man grabbed the gun and tried to wrestle it away from Morse. Several other people assisted in taking the Glock from Morse and forcing him outside.

The taxi driver had called police, who arrived to see Morse and another man outside. They were patted down and said that the gun was just a pellet gun.

Green and other officers entered the home and located the Glock, which had been hidden under a dresser in an upstairs bedroom, where many underage partygoers also were apparently hiding.

Officers brought the gun, the magazines and 20 live rounds of ammunition to the station.

Morse was cooperative, according to officers, and took full responsibility for his actions.

He told an officer that he had intended only to intimidate people with the gun, but had no explanation when he was asked why he had brought live ammunition.

Morse said he had been having some drinking problems lately and was in the habit of consuming a 12-pack of beer a day, according to police reports.

He said he had been in Iraq with the Marine Corps and had lost several friends there, some of whom had died in his arms, according to police reports.

In a written statement to the police, Morse wrote: “I don’t deserve to own a gun until I can come to grips with myself.”

Morse was arrested and charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon. He also was urged by police to seek counseling for his psychological problems, according to the reports.

Two underage Old Town men had their party broken up by police at 2:33 a.m. Sunday and had to dump their beer down the sink to boot.

Officers responding to a noise complaint about a Middle Street party summoned Jeffrey Cusson and Aaron Le, both 19, for furnishing a place for minors to consume liquor. Officer Seth Burnes said that he estimated a dozen people were at the party. Burnes found a large amount of beer in the house when he investigated.

Officers responding to a report of an early morning accident Sunday on Interstate 395 in Bangor found an allegedly intoxicated United States Air Force crew chief and a damaged USAF pickup truck.

Randy El Austin, 19, of Wichita, Kan., had hung up his Ford truck on the guardrail, blocking the eastbound entrance to I-395.

Although El Austin told Officer Steve Pelletier that he was totally sober, he failed field sobriety tests and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.11 percent.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Abigail Curtis