WATERVILLE, Maine — A 32-year-old man from Hartland is dead after an armed confrontation in Waterville Thursday night, according to police.
The Waterville Police Department said in a release Friday that on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 11:30 p.m., Waterville police responded to the parking lot of the Best Western Hotel located on Upper Main St. for a report of a man armed with a knife who was acting erratically and threatening people in the parking lot.
According to police, responding officers found the man, identified by police as Eric Porter, 32, of Hartland, in the parking lot. Police say before they could talk with Porter, he charged at a police cruiser wielding the knife and ran across Main Street and up the northbound exit ramp of I-95 and onto the Interstate.
Officers then found Porter sitting on a guardrail still holding the knife. Police say attempts to persuade him to surrender the knife were unsuccessful and an armed confrontation ensued, resulting in Porter being fatally shot by Waterville police officer Paul Heath.
As with any use of force by a law enforcement officer, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is investigating the incident.
Marc Malon of the Attorney General’s Office says the OAG’s role, as set forth by statute, “is to investigate the use of deadly force by the law enforcement officer in order to come to a determination as to whether or not the action was legally justified.”
The Waterville Police Department says Heath is on administrative leave, which is standard in such circumstances.