The Maine attorney general’s office ruled that police were justified in using deadly force during two separate incidents last year that resulted in the death of one person.
The Maine AG’s office has never ruled against a police officer who has used deadly force. Several cases have been challenged in civil suits, including the death of 18-year-old Gregori Jackson, who was shot five times by Waldoboro police officer Zachary Curtis in 2007, and 18-year-old Ambroshia “Amber” Fagre, who was shot by Maine State Police Trooper Jeffrey Parks in 2017.
Parks also fatally shot Shay McKenna, who was the subject of one of the AG’s reports released on Friday.
Shay McKenna
On Sept. 13, 2023, a state trooper fatally shot Shay McKenna, 28, of Rumford, while police were attempting to arrest him for violating bail conditions.
He had been charged with manslaughter in connection with the Dec. 19, 2022, death of his brother, 23-year-old Drew McKenna of Rumford, whom Shay McKenna allegedly shot at a Route 2 residence in Rumford. Drew McKenna was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where he died the next day from his injuries.
While on bail, Shay McKenna missed a court appearance and was later found at a makeshift camp on paper company land in Township C, according to the AG’s report. Police saw evidence of target shooting. A game warden installed a camera and captured images of McKenna with a rifle in violation of his bail conditions.
“A plan was devised to deploy 10 officers from the Tactical Team on foot to set up a containment perimeter and, once the perimeter was established, the arrest team would approach the camp in an armored vehicle,” the report reads.
Police announced themselves over a loudspeaker but got no response from McKenna, who was inside a van in the encampment.
Trooper Jeffrey Parks, who was part of the perimeter team, saw McKenna getting out of the van wearing body armor with rifle magazines on his front and holding an AR-15 rifle “at the low ready position,” according to the report. Parks said McKenna appeared to be scanning the woods where other members of the police team would have been. Fearing for their safety, Parks shot twice. McKenna was pronounced dead at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds.
The AG’s office determined that when Parks shot Mr. McKenna, he “reasonably believed that Mr. McKenna posed an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death to the tactical team members in the wood line on the perimeter and himself.”
Aaron Bulger
A second use-of-deadly-force report released on Friday described an encounter between the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office and Aaron Bulger, 37, of Deer Isle.
Just before noon on Sept. 10, 2023, Deputy Justin Burnette was responding to another call for service when he saw Bulger outside his home at 16 Sunset Road in Deer Isle. Aware that there was an outstanding felony arrest warrant out for Bulger, Burnette returned to the residence and tried to take Bulger into custody.
Bulger resisted arrest, punching and kicking Burnette and attempting to barricade himself in multiple buildings on the property. While moving between buildings, Bulger received several Taser shots and later grabbed a police dog by the throat to keep it at bay. More police arrived. As Bulger ran toward a building at 22 Sunset Road, Sgt. Travis Frost and Deputy Zack Allen of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office fired shots at him out of concern he would go inside and create a hostage situation, based on escalating aggression from Bulger. The building belonged to Bulger, but the officers said they did not know that at the time.
None of the shots hit Bulger, and he was ultimately talked into surrendering by the Maine State Police negotiating team.
The AG’s office determined that Sgt. Frost and Deputy Allen “reasonably believed they were acting in defense of others by attempting to apprehend Mr. Bulger before he entered what they believed to be an innocent neighbor’s home and seriously injure another person.”
