Global Courant 2023-04-20 02:26:38
A Maine man charged with killing four people in a home and reportedly shooting three others at random on a busy highway confessed to killing his parents and two of their friends before fleeing and shooting at the motorists , police said on Wednesday.
Joseph Eaton, 34, has been charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of Cynthia and David Eaton, as well as those of Robert Eger and Patricia Eger, Maine State Police Colonel Bill Ross told reporters.
Their bodies were found by authorities at the Egers’ home in the town of Bowdoin after a concerned friend called 911 at 9:20 a.m. Tuesday morning after multiple attempts to reach the couple.
Ross said Eaton confessed to killing his parents and their friends and shooting at vehicles on Interstate 295 because he believed he was being followed.
Three people traveling together — Sean Halsey, 51; Justin Halsey, 29; and Paige Halsey, 25 – were shot by Eaton as he fled, Ross said. Paige Halsey was in critical condition and the others suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Eaton was found in a wooded area not far from where he left his vehicle at a highway exit and taken into custody.
He was charged with four counts of murder, but was not immediately charged with any highway shootings.
Eaton was released Friday from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, where he had served about two years for aggravated assault.
“He was picked up from Windham Prison I believe on April 14 by his mother Cynthia, and they drove to the residence and Bowdoin where the murders took place,” Ross said.
Eaton is in police custody and it is unclear if he has engaged a lawyer. State records also show that Eaton had a criminal history that should have prevented him from legally owning a gun.
Eaton has been charged with more than half a dozen crimes in the past decade and served an eight-month prison sentence last year 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.
Officials were questioned on Wednesday over a video posted to social media a day prior to the shooting in which a man believed to be Eaton criticized people for not giving others a second chance.
“We’re aware of the video and again, that’s part of our investigation and what it all means,” Ross said. “Right now we’re in the how phase, how this happened. And I think the why part of this — you know, why did all this happen? — will come at a later date.”
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.
Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck called the crimes “an assault on the soul of our state” that shocked neighbors, law enforcement and the state as a whole.
“It’s a shock to everyone,” he said. “Of course you want to say, ‘That can’t happen here in Maine.’ But the reality is that these senseless acts can happen anywhere.”
The seven people shot on Tuesday were the latest victims of mass shootings across the US that targeted a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee; a couch in Louisville, Kentucky, and a Sweet Sixteen party in a small town in Alabama.
