AG: Trooper was justified in fatal Rumford shooting

AUGUSTA – Attorney General Steven Rowe said Friday that a Maine State Police trooper was legally justified when he shot and killed a 46-year-old man two months ago after a seven-hour standoff outside the home of the man’s ex-wife in Rumford.

Trooper Timothy Black had reason to believe that Scott White posed an imminent threat when he advanced on Black and Sgt. William Keith while holding knives in each hand and refusing Black’s order to “get down, get down,” Rowe said.

The attorney general concluded that Black, who shot White three times in the chest and abdomen, reasonably believed that he needed to use deadly force to protect himself and Keith.

White was free on bail on an attempted murder charge involving a knife attack on his former wife when he entered the Penobscot Street home on Sept. 22, prompting a caller to alert police that White had been consuming alcohol in violation of his bail conditions.

The caller said White, whose former wife was away, refused to leave the house and threatened to burn it down and die in the process.

A state police tactical team with crisis negotiators and an armored vehicle was at the scene for much of the afternoon before White emerged from the house holding the two knives with 71/2- and 8-inch blades.

While White shouted toward the officers in the armored vehicle, Keith fired a Taser at him. When the stun gun failed to bring White down and he advanced on Keith and Black, the trooper fired the three rounds, Rowe’s report said.

Tests showed that White, who was pronounced dead at a Rumford hospital, had a blood alcohol level of 0.28 percent, even after intravenous fluids had been added to his body at the hospital. Maine’s legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent.

The report was based on interviews with law enforcement officers and civilians at the scene, audio recordings and medical, autopsy and forensic reports.