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Maine man found hiding in woods
Maine police scouring the cold, muddy forest for a 29-year-old man wanted in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy found their man outside a remote wooded camp and slapped the dead cop’s handcuffs on the fugitive.
A seven-man capture team found John D. Williams, exhausted and shirtless, at a camp in the woods south of Norridgewock, Maine, on the fourth day of a massive manhunt triggered by the killing of Somerset County Sheriff Deputy Cpl. Eugene Cole.
Williams “offered limited resistance” and was taken into custody with Cole’s handcuffs, officials said.
“I felt it was fitting,” Somerset Sheriff Dale Lancaster said at a press conference. “He killed my deputy Cpl. Gene Cole, and he was brought to justice using Cole’s handcuffs.”
Officials did not say why they believe Williams shot and killed Cole early Wednesday morning, then stole his police car and robbed an area convenience store before dumping the car and fleeing on foot.
Lancaster said Cole’s family members are “extremely grateful for the efforts, they are relieved that we now have the person who killed Gene in custody.”
“I am extremely relieved that we have Williams in custody,” he added. “I am extremely saddened by the death of my deputy, and I can tell you those feelings are not only shared by myself but by my own deputies and all of law enforcement.”
Hundreds of law enforcement personnel, including FBI agents, searched the woods of central Maine for four days for Williams. Along the way, they found tracks and other “critical evidence” that kept them believing they had him surrounded and were closing in on him.
Cops grabbed Williams, who was taken into custody lying prone on the ground, and pulled his head off the ground to take a photo to confirm his identity, according to Maine State Police Lt. Col. John Cote, who addressed the capture photo circulating hours after his arrest.
“The suspect would not facilitate in displaying his face for the photograph to be taken, so we had to
‘He killed my deputy Cpl. Gene Cole, and he was brought to justice using Cole’s handcuffs.’ — Sheriff DALE LANCASTER
facilitate that,” Cote said.
Police declined to say if Williams was armed, but they confirmed they were seeking a search warrant for the camp.
Williams was cleared by medics after his arrest, sent to Waterville police for questioning and is expected to spend the next couple of days at Maine Correctional Center in Windham before a court appearance “at the first of the week,” Cote said.
Cote referred questions about Williams’ court appearance to the Maine attorney general’s office.
On the day police say Williams shot and killed Cole, Williams was due in Massachusetts court to answer to gun charges he was arrested for in March. He was originally held on a $7,500 bail that was lowered to an amount Williams could pay — $5,000 — after a review by Salem Superior Court judge.
Cole was “an outstanding officer,” Lancaster said. “He paid attention to detail. He really epitomized community policing even before there was community policing.”