BANGOR, Maine — Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has determined former Bangor Police Officer Dylan Hall used reasonable deadly force when he shot a Grove Street man during a confrontation in 2018.
Hall shot 40-year-old Brian Barker in the pelvis, knee, and ankle on Oct. 16, 2018, as he approached two other officers while holding an 8-inch knife and yelling at them to shoot him.
Hall was among officers who went to 112 Grove St. that day for a report of a domestic disturbance.
Bangor police said at the time that when officers arrived at the home, they were approached by a man, later identified as Barker, who was holding a weapon.
Police said that during a brief confrontation, Hall shot Barker.
The Bangor Daily News reported Monday that Hall left the department last July.
In a letter to Bangor Police Chief Mark Hathaway written March 30 and released Monday, Frey wrote that Hall's use of force was legally justified, and that video from three cruiser cameras supports his account of the incident.
According to the letter, a woman called the police just after 11 a.m. that day to report that her boyfriend, Barker, appeared to be "high on drugs" and was threatening to cut his throat with a knife he held.
The woman said she had left Barker in the apartment and locked herself and her dog in her car in the driveway.
A "factual summary" from Frey states that the caller told a dispatcher that Barker was walking toward her car, and the woman could be heard on the audio telling Barker, "No" and to "[j]ust go."
Two officers arrived to find Barker on the sidewalk carrying a backpack, which he threw in the street as the officers left their car.
"Both officers saw that Mr. Barker was armed with a knife later determined to be 8 inches long with a 3 1/2 inch blade," the summary states. "In an agitated state, he challenged the officers to 'go ahead and smoke me.'"
According to the summary, Barker ignored commands to drop the knife and approached the two officers "while wildly swinging his arms" and yelling at them to "[expletive] do it."
Hall arrived "seconds" later, saw Barker approaching the officers with a knife, yelling and refusing at least 20 commands to drop the knife, and as the officers backed away, Hall fired his gun four times from about 15 feet away, hitting Barker in the pelvis, knee, and ankle.
Frey wrote that a video from cameras in three cruisers supports Hall's account of the shooting.
Three of the bullets struck Barker, but according to the summary, Barker "was not immediately compliant." Police performed first aid until paramedics arrived about a minute later.
Frey wrote that when Hall shot Barker, "he reasonably believed that Mr. Barker was about to use unlawful deadly force against him and two other officers ... All the facts and circumstances point to the conclusion that Officer Hall acted in self-defense and in the defense of others."
Hall, who at the time of the shooting had been an officer for just more than one year, was placed on administrative leave pending today's ruling.