Gunman kills three people in central Maine

MADISON, Maine — A gunman killed three people and wounded a fourth early Wednesday in Maine’s deadliest shooting since 2015 and then was fatally shot by deputies, authorities said.

The shootings happened along a country road that runs behind the Skowhegan Fairgrounds, and Somerset County deputies ended the rampage by killing the gunman, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve Mccausland said.

Police didn’t immediately release the identities of the gunman or the victims and declined to further discuss the investigation.

But a selectwoman in neighboring Skowhegan, Darla Pickett, said her daughter was one of the victims, the Morning Sentinel reported. The condition of the survivor was unknown.

Deputies responding to an emergency call uncovered a grisly scene with three victims at different locations along a road, Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster said.

The gunman left the scene after killing the three people but returned and shot the fourth person while deputies were in the area, and the deputies then fatally shot him, Lancaster said.

The investigation was focusing on a home where a neighbor said there had been a party and fireworks the night before, on the Fourth of July. Police remained at the site on Wednesday, said neighbor Wayne Parlin, whose driveway was blocked by investigators.

The shootings happened about 4 miles from the center of town in Madison, a town of about 4,800 residents in central Maine.

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

It was the deadliest shooting in Maine since November 2015, when a gunman killed his girlfriend and a 3-year-old girl’s parents before taking his own life in Oakland. The 3-year-old girl was the only survivor.