To reach a suicide prevention hotline, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
A Sabattus man who fatally shot his mother before shooting at passing drivers on Wednesday, killing one, injuring two then fatally shooting himself was acting erratically in the hours before the shooting, police said at a press conference on Thursday.
James Davis III, 29, had spent the earlier part of the day at his father’s house on Birchwood Drive with family members and had brought multiple weapons with him, including a .357 revolver and an AK-47 rifle. Ross said police believe he may have brought additional weapons to the Birchwood Drive house.
During the day, family member noticed that Davis began to “act erratically,” Ross said. They contacted his mother, 47-year-old Christine Smith of Sabattus, with whom Davis lived, and made arrangements to drive him to her.
“She seems to be the one who had been able to calm him down in these types of situations,” Maine State Police Col. William Ross said, adding that she was his primary caregiver.
Davis’ father brought him to a meeting point where he got into the car with his mother.
When Davis and Smith reached the nearby intersection of King Street and Middle Road, Davis fatally shot his mother with the revolver. The vehicle continued across the intersection, at which point Davis jumped out and started shooting at oncoming traffic with the AK-47, Ross said.
He hit one driver, 53-year-old Katherine Williams of Sabattus, with gunfire. She was later taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where she died.
Davis then shot two more drivers, 19-year-old Tyson Turner of Jay and 35-year-old David Wilson of Hartford, both of whom were traveling alone. Turner and Wilson were among multiple people who called 911, Ross said. Both were taken to CMMC and are expected to survive.
Davis then turned the rifle on himself, according to a witness interviewed by police, Ross said. He died of a gunshot wound.
Interviews with family members suggested Davis was having a mental health crisis, Ross said, but little else was immediately known.
Maine State Police had not previously had interactions with Davis, nor had Lisbon police, according to the department’s Chief Ryan McGee.
“He was 29, living with his mother and didn’t have a driver’s license,” Ross said, adding that Davis had a sporadic work history and police believe he didn’t often leave the area where lived.
Ross described the incident as unusual in that it had “a domestic undertone to it and random acts of violence.”
“This was something you don’t see very often, even though we saw it in Bowdoin not long ago,” he said. “But it is uncommon.”
