MAINE, USA — Editor's note: This video originally aired on Feb. 25.
A 50-state database shows that the rate of fatal police shootings in Maine is the highest in New England.
The database found that the rate is 22 per million people going back to 2015. The state has about 1.3 million residents and has been the site of 29 deadly police shootings over the past seven years.
Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry said one reason for Maine's high rate could be the number of guns in the state. Merry said he was not familiar with the database created by the Washington Post.
"Deadly force encounters almost always happen when a person has a deadly weapon, and there's a threat that that person is going to use that weapon against the officer or another third party," Merry told The Times Record.
The second-highest rate in New England is in Vermont, where it has been 18 per million people since 2015, according to the database.