Man surrenders after police standoff

ELLSWORTH – A local man surrendered peacefully to police Friday afternoon after threatening to hurt himself and holding authorities at bay in a standoff that lasted three hours.

The man was armed with a rifle and possibly other weapons when police went to his Red Bridge Road home around noon. He was despondent over breaking up with his girlfriend and told a friend over the phone that he wanted to shoot himself, according to police.

Three of the man’s housemates were home at the time but did not realize anything was wrong until they got a phone call from police urging them to get out of the house.

“Something evidently broke loose inside him this morning,” Erica Sirois, 20, said while standing in the drizzle around the corner from her home. “He’s really upset right now.”

Police identified the gunman Friday evening as William Anderson, 21. He never threatened anyone except himself, but is expected to be charged with creating a police standoff, according to Ellsworth police Lt. Harold Page.

Sirois, Will Clemmens, 22, and Amanda Davison, 20, walked safely out of their house around 1 p.m., after local and state police had blocked off the intersection of Red Bridge Road and Christian Ridge Road from all directions. Some other neighboring homes were evacuated as well, police said.

The three housemates said Anderson had not threatened or behaved aggressively toward any of them either before or after police called and told them they should leave.

The trio was directed by officers to a nearby home on Christian Ridge Road, where they were interviewed by police. Afterward, they sat out of the chilly rain in a heated ambulance parked down the road while waiting for the situation to be resolved.

Sirois said the group of friends all moved into the house from the Bangor area on May 1 in an effort to start their lives anew. Anderson, whom she declined to refer to by name, recently started a job at a retail store in downtown Bar Harbor, she said.

“He’s not a bad guy by any means,” she said. “He’s really a soft-hearted guy. He has a gentle spirit. He loves being outdoors.”

Sirois said her troubled housemate has had personal problems but that they are nothing that he cannot overcome. She said she had met him more than a year ago when they worked together in the Bangor area.

“He’s so much smarter than this,” she said. “He does not need to be seen as stupid because he is not. We were hoping being around good people would help.”

Police contacted Anderson over the phone and spoke with him many times throughout the standoff.

“He did not want police there and did not want to talk to the police,” said Ellsworth police Detective Dottie Small, one of the officers who talked to Anderson over the phone. “He just wanted it to be quiet and for all of us to go away.”

Ellsworth police Officer Jeremy Cox also contacted Anderson on his cell phone and spoke with him for a long time, police said.

Local, county and state police officers responded, but a Maine State Police team was called to possibly engage Anderson, who recently had completed basic military training, according to Page.

The tactical team, dressed in camouflage gear and wearing green helmets, took position outside the house around 2 p.m.

Less than an hour later, Anderson walked out of the garage with his hands in the air and surrendered peacefully to police without a shot having been fired, Page said. He then was taken to a nearby hospital for an evaluation.

“Everything turned out good,” Page said. “It went about as good as it could go. You couldn’t ask for a better outcome.”

BDN reporter Rich Hewitt contributed to this story.