Police: 3 killed in shooting rampage in Maine
A shooting spree that police say left three dead and another injured in remote Downeast Maine has “rocked” the tight-knit community, residents told the Herald.
Thomas Bonfanti, 63, shot four people in three separate homes in Washington County, according to police. The Northfield man was taken into custody at the American Legion in Machias, and is being charged with murder, police said.
The dead victims were identified by police as Shawn Currey, 57; Samuel Powers, 33; and Jennifer Bryant-Flynn, 49.
“It’s rocked the entire community,” said Joshua Rolfe, chairman of the Machias Board of Select-People. “We’re such a small and close-knit community. This deeply impacts everybody here.”
The motive for the shooting spree is under investigation, said Maine State Police
Lt. Troy Gardner.
Bonfanti knew the victims, the lieutenant said at a press conference at the Washington sheriff’s office in Machias Monday night.
“He was familiar with them,” Gardner said.
Police first responded to a Kennebec Road home in Machias at around 10:45 a.m. Currey was found dead, and a woman was transported to the hospital. Her condition has not been released.
Then police responded to a Roques Bluff home, where they found Powers dead.
The third home police responded to was another Kennebec Road home in Machias where Bryant-Flynn was found dead.
“Based on the evidence we have, we don’t have any reason to believe anyone else is involved in the shootings, or that anyone else was hurt,” Gardner said.
Police then located Bonfanti at the American Legion and took him into custody.
Troopers, sheriff ’s deputies,
Machias Police, the Maine Warden Service and the Maine Forestry Service responded to the scenes.
Machias Memorial High School was placed on lockdown for a brief time Monday morning, according to a post on the school’s Facebook page. The lockdown was lifted around noon and students were set to resume normal schedules, according to the post.
The population of Machias, Maine, is around 2,000 people.
Rolfe said the community was already on edge because the high school on Friday was listed in a threat mentioning U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. The school was placed in a “soft lockdown” after the threat.
“It’s been a very tense period of time,” Rolfe said.
Residents in the rural community said they were shocked by the shooting spree.
“This is crazy. It’s usually very quiet here,” said Johanna Franz, owner of Jo’s World Famous Schnitzel Wagon, located near the American Legion. “We usually don’t have anything happen up this way.”
Added Sarah Nelson, a waitress at the nearby Bluebird Ranch Family Restaurant, “You hear about things like this in larger cities. To know it’s 2, 3, 4 minutes up the road is definitely surprising.”