A Maine man has been charged with murder after allegedly killing four people in a home before shooting three others on a nearby highway shortly afterwards.
Authorities arrested Joseph Eaton, 34, hours after he opened fire Tuesday morning in Bowdoin, Maine, and on Interstate 295.
Law enforcement officers rushed to the crime scene in Bowdoin at 10:30 a.m. and found four victims, before hearing reports that several people had been shot in cars traveling on the highway about 25 miles from the initial shootings.
How Eaton was taken into custody has not been disclosed. However, officials quickly linked the shootings and he is currently in custody and expected to appear in court later this week.
Joseph Eaton, 34, pictured, has been arrested in connection with multiple shootings in Maine that left four people dead and several others injured
A suspect is seen handcuffed in police custody. Shortly after this photo was taken, he was taken away
This is the scene of the shooting along Interstate 295 in Yarmouth, Maine
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
Maine State Police have maintained there is no further threat to the public after the suspect involved in both shootings was taken into custody. Authorities are yet to discuss a motive.
“A person of interest has been apprehended and the incidents are linked,” Lieutenant Randall Keaten of the Maine State Police told reporters ahead of the arrest.
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.
Maine State Police are continuing to search the area where the suspect was taken into custody as a precaution.
told Lisa Erickson the Portland Press Herald that she heard gunshots near her home in Yarmouth, a few minutes later her 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.
Alex Haskell of WGME-TV posted a video on social media showing a suspect in custody speaking to police officers. Haskell said the man was taken away shortly after recording the video.
A car seen in Haskell’s video has several bullet holes in its windshield.
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.
A police officer stands guard in Yarmouth, where residents were told to take shelter after the shooting
“We are confident there is no imminent threat to the general public at this time,” said Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry, whose deputies provided assistance in Bowdoin. He referred questions to state police.
At the Bowdoin crime scene, yellow crime scene tape hung around a house with a long gravel driveway in a wooded area.
About 10 marked and unmarked law enforcement vehicles and a crime scene van were parked outside while detectives walked around and talked.
In Yarmouth, traffic stalled on the highway as police closed southbound lanes and state, county and local police searched the area.
Representatives from the Maine Department of Transportation said they closed the south end of I-295 in Yarmouth in the late morning at the request of state police.
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.