ORONO – Local police arrested a man at gunpoint Thursday night after learning he was wanted in Oklahoma for a felony firearms violation and possibly kidnapping.

Johnathan Taylor, 23, recently showed up at his former foster mother’s home in Orono after not having any contact with the woman for many years. He had a woman and three children in tow and no place to stay, Orono police Capt. Josh Ewing said.

“He made comments about starting fresh in Maine,” Ewing said. “He mentioned a protection order, saying he wasn’t supposed to be with the kids.”

The former foster mother, whose name wasn’t provided, did some research online and learned that there was a warrant out for Taylor’s arrest in Oklahoma.

Nervous, she gave Taylor money that he used to pay for a room at the Brewer Motor Inn, Ewing said.

Taylor isn’t facing any charges in Maine, and waived extradition Friday, according to the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office. Oklahoma police officials are expected to come to Maine to retrieve Taylor from the Penobscot County Jail.

Though the three children are his, Taylor could face kidnapping charges because he is under a court order not to contact them.

After Orono police learned Taylor was wanted in Oklahoma for failing to appear in court on a felony firearms charge, and that he wasn’t supposed to have contact with the children, officers became concerned for the children’s safety. Ewing said they later learned that Oklahoma officials had reported the children missing.

At the request of the police, the former foster mother called Taylor and said she would meet him at a College Avenue parking lot to give him some more money.

Once Taylor had left the Brewer Motor Inn, where he was staying with the children and a woman believed to be their mother, Brewer police went to check on them.

“They had no food and hadn’t eaten,” Ewing said.

Police brought food for the children and the woman, and an officer stayed with them through the night.

“She’s not being charged with anything that I’m aware of,” Ewing said. The woman may have been coerced by Taylor into coming to Maine.

The children’s grandparents have court-appointed custody and reportedly flew to Bangor on Friday.

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