Investigation clears troopers in shooting of Auburn man

AUBURN – Two Maine State Police troopers were legally justified in using deadly force against a 42-year-old Auburn man after an eight-hour standoff that began when he shot and killed his elderly mother, Attorney General Steven Rowe said Friday.

James Peters fired a dozen rounds at police, with at least one round striking a police vehicle and propelling glass fragments into an officer’s face, before the shooter was brought down by police gunfire on the evening of March 30, the attorney general’s report said.

Rowe found that Trooper Lucas Hare, who fired the shot that killed Peters, and Trooper Douglas Cropper were justified in shooting at Peters.

The investigation found that the two State Police Tactical Team members reasonably believed that Peters posed an imminent deadly threat and that use of deadly force on their part was needed to protect themselves and others.

Under Maine law, the attorney general reviews all cases involving use of deadly force in the line of duty by law enforcement officers.

The standoff began at 10:30 a.m. when Peters shot his 76-year-old mother, Margaret Peters, whose body remained in the driveway of her Minot Avenue home. Some neighbors in the immediate area were evacuated and others were advised to remain inside their homes.

Efforts to communicate with Peters inside the home were fruitless. A negotiator with a loudspeaker tried unsuccessfully to speak with the gunman and 114 telephone calls to the residence went unanswered, Rowe’s investigation found.

When, after several hours, police fired tear gas rounds into the house, Peters responded by firing at the officers with what sounded like a fully automatic weapon, the report said.

After police were fired on, officers were told that deadly force was to be used if Peters was sighted. Hare and Cropper fired their weapons at Peters after observing him near a window holding something in his hands, investigators said.

When tactical team members entered the house early the next morning, they found that Peters died of a shotgun round fired by Hare.

Weapons found in the house included an AK-47 assault rifle, two hunting rifles, a .22-caliber rifle and the .12 gauge shotgun that was believed to have been used to kill Margaret Peters.