September 22, 2024
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Man, 40, fatally shot in police confrontation

SOUTH PORTLAND – The state Attorney General’s Office and city police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 40-year-old man by police officers after a confrontation at his home Wednesday night. It was the second police shooting case in less than two months in the city.

Donald Gray was pronounced dead at the scene after a series of events that began with an argument between Gray and his parents, Herbert and Jackie Gray, with whom he lived. South Portland police said the argument was over a civil case in which the younger Gray was involved, but did not provide details.

The Grays asked their son to leave the house, on Simmons Road, but Donald Gray went into his bedroom with a pistol he had taken from his car and told his parents to stay out, police said.

Police were called to the scene and tried to make contact with Gray, but an armed confrontation developed and Gray was shot by police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Herbert and Donald Gray had worked together in a surveying and engineering consulting business.

The officers, Jeffrey Cogswell and Theodore Sargent, were not injured. Police said both were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, which is routine in police shooting cases.

The Attorney General’s Office has completed an investigation into a shooting that took place in South Portland on Oct. 11, but it did not result in a death. The shooting was justified, Attorney General Steven Rowe said Thursday.

Terrel Dubois, 22, of Portland has been indicted on two counts of aggravated attempted murder in connection with the shooting, which occurred during an exchange of gunfire with police after they came to serve an arrest warrant at an apartment where Dubois had been staying.

Both Dubois and Officer Steven Connors suffered multiple gunshot wounds, but both are recovering. The other officer involved was Sgt. Robert Doherty.

Rowe said Connors and Doherty “actually and reasonably believed that unlawful deadly force was being used against them by Dubois and that the use of deadly force on their part was necessary to protect themselves and each other.”


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