Gunman kills 3, wounds 4th before being shot dead by police

MADISON, Maine — A gunman shot and killed his partner, their adult son and a neighbor and wounded a fourth person before being fatally shot by deputies early Wednesday, leaving detectives at a loss to explain the outburst of violence, an official said.

Three deputies ended the rampage by shooting 51-year-old Carroll Tuttle in a confrontation in his driveway, said Steve McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Detectives are focused on determining what sparked “an extreme case of domestic violence,” McCausland said.

“Our role now is to investigate exactly what happened and what set this gunman off,” he said. “We don’t have that answer. We hope to get it.”

The shootings unfolded just hours after a neighbor said there had been a party with Fourth of July fireworks.

Deputies responding to an emergency call discovered the bodies and were present when Tuttle returned with a handgun, McCausland said.

Tuttle had killed his partner, 52-year-old Lori Hayden, and their son, 25-year-old Dustin Tuttle, at their home before killing a neighbor, 57-yearold Michael Spaulding, at his home a short distance away, McCausland said. The gunman returned to the original location and wounded another relative before being shot and killed by deputies.

The attorney general’s office sent investigators to the scene to review the use of deadly force by sheriff’s deputies.

But Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster stood behind the actions of his law enforcement officers to end the shooting.

“I have total confidence in the performance of my deputies,” he said.