The suspect in the murder of four people in a Maine home on Monday tearfully begged for forgiveness in a Facebook video a day earlier.
It has since been revealed that he was not legally allowed to own guns in the state, having been released from prison four days earlier.
The shootings in Maine began in the small town of Bowdoin, where four people were killed Tuesday.
A chaotic scene then developed that saw shooting at vehicles on a highway more than 20 miles away in the community of Yarmouth, police said. Three people were shot there and one remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
The shooter, identified as Joseph Eaton, 34, of Bowdoin, was charged with four murders but was not immediately charged in the highway shootings. In the chilling video, Eaton asks people to “try to forgive him” and reveals he is suffering from trauma after being harassed.
“Getting molested and all that. It destroys someone. I know I am good to my children. I wish people would forgive me, you know, some people. I don’t get it,” Eaton said. He does not say from whom he asks forgiveness.
Joseph Eaton was released from prison last Friday after serving eight months for assault
Eaton posted this photo on the day of his release from prison, accompanied by the caption: “Real food”
Eaton is seen handcuffed in police custody. Shortly after this photo was taken, he was taken off the scene in a police car
Eaton criticizes unnamed individuals for “claiming to be Christian” but unable to “forgive anyone or understand what they are going through.”
‘You can’t give someone a second chance, but you say you’re a Christian. How does that make sense? Why don’t you just try to take it easy, try to get to know the person. What good is it to hate someone? It destroys you,” he adds.
“Life as a whole is suffering. You work long hours, you get sick, people you love die, and you’re guaranteed to have “bad days.” You die and lose everything you have earned all your life. There is more going on than meets the eye. Life is a trial for what is to come,” Eaton wrote in a Facebook post on April 16.
Eaton has been charged with more than half a dozen crimes over the past 10 years and was serving a sentence on April 14 for assault, according to state records.
Previous convictions included aggravated assault, a crime that would not legally make him possess a firearm.
The origin and ownership of the firearms used in Tuesday’s shootings were unclear. State police declined to comment on the weapon used.
Eaton has a criminal record in both Maine and Florida. His crimes include felony aggravated assault, domestic violence and assault against a law enforcement officer, reports the Portland Press Herald.
The accused was sentenced to three years in prison in the Sunshine State in 2018 for felony weapons and assault charges.
On Friday, Eaton wrote on Facebook: It’s finally over. There are so many people I can’t wait to see.’ A day later, he posted a photo of him having breakfast with the caption, “Real food!!!!”
Bullet holes can be seen in the windshield of the silver sedan involved in the shooting
Maine State Police are continuing to search the area where the suspect was taken into custody as a precaution
Eaton is facing four counts of murder, he has yet to face charges in the interstate shooting
Eaton’s mugshot, he has a long criminal history in Maine, with charges such as assault and illegal possession of a firearm on this record
In Bowdoin, yellow crime tape where the shootings took place hung in a house flanked by woods at the end of a long gravel driveway. Detectives and evidence technicians stayed at the house late Tuesday to collect evidence, long after the hearses left the driveway.
At one point, a woman spoke to police outside the house, then fell to her knees and sobbed.
In Yarmouth on Wednesday, traffic was flowing normally on Interstate 295, where a day before the three people in cars were gunned down and the gunman was apprehended.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills tweeted her concern for the “families, friends and loved ones of those affected by this tragedy.” She said she was praying for the wounded.
“Like people all over Maine, I am shocked and deeply saddened. Acts of violence such as we have witnessed today are shaking our state and our communities to the core,” she said.
A witness to the shooting told CBS News affiliate WGME-TV, “We just saw a bunch of smoke. And my friend in the truck said, “I think that’s gunpowder, like bus smoke.”
State police have said the three motorists shot have been hospitalized with gunshot wounds and one is in critical condition.
On Facebook, Bowdinham resident Ian Halsey said some of the victims were his cousins. “My cousin is in critical condition and my other cousin is stable. There is no connection between the victims. It was random that my family got shot at,” Halsey said the Portland Press Herald.
Lisa Erickson told the newspaper she heard gunshots close to her home in Yarmouth, a few minutes later the neighborhood was swarming with police officers.
Erickson said responding officers told her and her neighbors to stay indoors while a search was conducted. The suspect’s abandoned car was parked close to the woman’s house.
The town of Yarmouth has a population of about 9,000 and is located about 12 miles north of Maine’s largest city, Portland. Bowdoin is a small farming community with a population of approximately 3,000.
Police briefly ordered people in nearby neighborhoods to take shelter, but authorities later announced there was no threat to the public.
Lenora Felker, who works near the highway at Rosemont Market and Bakery, said she sensed something was up as people poured in, saying the highway was closed, followed by dozens of law enforcement officers descending on the area.
Officers searched businesses asking if they “saw anyone running wet and muddy,” Felker said. But she knew all the customers and didn’t see anything “unusual,” she said.