JEFFERSON, Maine — EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above is from Dec. 19, 2020.
A Lincoln County sheriff's deputy was justified in shooting and killing a man in Jefferson on Dec. 18, 2020, the Office of the Maine Attorney General has determined.
Deputy David Bellows fatally shot Jacob McClure, 41, at McClure's home on Rockland Road.
On Friday, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey released a report detailing the findings of his office's investigation, which determined that Bellows "acted in self-defense and the defense of the other deputy sheriffs and the woman in the residence when he shot Mr. McClure."
Frey said Bellows "reasonably believed that Mr. McClure was about to use unlawful deadly force against him and the woman in the residence."
Deputies entered the home just after midnight and said they witnessed an ongoing assault between McClure and a woman. This led to an armed confrontation between McClure and the deputies inside the home just after 1 a.m.
According to Frey, Bellows saw McClure in a doorway "holding a rifle with his left hand at waist level and the barrel of the gun pointed at him." It was at that point that Bellows shot and killed McClure.
A postmortem examination and autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found that McClure was shot five times, according to Frey.
No law enforcement personnel were injured during the confrontation.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The video below is from Dec. 19, 2020.