AUGUSTA, Maine — A deputy was legally justified in fatally shooting a 16-year-old who pointed a gun at the officer while holding a store employee hostage, the state attorney general’s office announced Friday.
The episode unfolded on Dec. 27, 2019, when Christopher Comacho entered a Dollar General store in Limerick with a handgun and machete, and secured a clerk’s wrists with tape, officials said.
Store surveillance cameras captured the scene as Deputy Robert Carr of the York County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the store as Comacho held a gun in one hand and a machete in the other.
Carr fired his rifle twice when Comacho pointed the gun toward him as he attempted to enter. A wound to the neck was fatal.
The boy’s mother previously said that she believed her son wanted to be killed, and that the officer didn’t attempt to defuse the situation.
But the attorney general said Carr reasonably believed the teen intended to shoot him or hurt the clerk before discharging the rifle.
“All of the facts and circumstances point to the conclusion that Deputy Carr acted in self defense and the defense of another at the time he used deadly force,” Attorney General Aaron Frey wrote.
The teen’s handgun turned out to be a revolver-style pellet gun.
Friday’s report on the Limerick shooting was one of three that found officers justified in a fatal shooting, or for discharging their weapons.
The attorney general also found that Penobscot County Sheriff’s Deputy Kenneth York was justified in fatally shooting Stephen Blossom, 35, last July after Blossom approached him and another officer with a gun, refused to follow orders to drop his weapon and pointed his gun at York, according to Frey’s review of the case.
A third report released by the attorney general’s office on Friday found that officers were justified in discharging their weapons when responding to a complaint that 51-year-old Kevin Harvey was holding his girlfriend hostage and threatening to kill her and himself in August 2019.
Officers Jeffrey Burkhardt and Anthony Zawistowksi with the Lewiston Police Department responded to a Robinson Gardens residence, and found that Harvey’s girlfriend had fled the residence where the couple had been staying. The woman told police that she had heard a shot as she was running to her neighbors house, and that Harvey had threatened her with a pistol.
Harvey reportedly followed the woman to the neighbors house, and then returned to his residence.
When Burkhardt and Zawistowski set up a perimeter around Harvey’s residence, they noticed that the back door was open. As the officers moved to get a better view, they heard what sounded like a gunshot, according to the report. When the officers turned to investigate, they saw Harvey lying prone and looking toward them.
Burkhardt, believing a shot had been fired toward him and Zawistowski, fired a round from his AR-15 rifle in Harvey’s direction. Harvey did not respond when officers called out to him, and upon investigation, Burkhardt and Zawistowski discovered that Harvey received a fatal gunshot injury to his head.
Two bullet casings were discovered near Harvey’s body, which were later determined to have been fired from a 9mm Walther model Creed semi-automatic pistol.
An autopsy declared that Harvey died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.
The attorney general’s report found that Burkhardt had been justified in discharging his weapon.
BDN writer Leela Stockley contributed to this report.
