The man killed by police in Arundel on May 29 had assaulted his wife that night and called a friend to say he was “done” and planned to burn the house down, court records show.

Less than an hour before Chad Dionne was shot and killed by York County sheriff’s deputies, Dionne’s wife, Michelle, reported to the Biddeford Police Department that her husband had assaulted her and killed her cat at their Arundel home, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Biddeford District Court.

After Michelle Dionne reported the alleged abuse in Biddeford, the York County Sheriff’s Department was informed of the situation at 1:32 a.m., wrote Detective Sgt. Michael P. Hayes of the York County Sheriff’s Department.

Multiple sheriff’s deputies responded to Dionne’s home at Old Alfred Road around 2:14 a.m., and only a few minutes later, at 2:21 a.m., the officers reported on their radios that there was a man with a gun on the scene.

Moments later, police reported shots had been fired. “It was later learned the male with a gun was a Chad Dionne,” Hayes wrote. “He was transported to Southern Maine Medical Center.”

When police interviewed Michelle Dionne later that day, she had a cut and bruise above her right eye and told Hayes about the assault and how “she knew something bad was going to happen and she feels responsible for the death of her husband.”

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Also present at the interview was Diana Kane, who said she received a call from Chad Dionne that night at 1:16 a.m. During that call, Dionne sounded intoxicated and said “he was done, tired and sick of everything,” Hayes wrote.

Dionne then told Kane that she would have to take care of Dionne’s family, and that he was going to set the house on fire and “f-in’ end it,” Hayes wrote.

Exactly how the deputies encountered Dionne and what transpired when they met is unclear. Dionne’s death and the use of deadly force by the officers are under investigation by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, which is standard procedure for any police shooting.

The two York County deputies who were involved – Steven Thistlewood and Heath Mains – are on administrative leave pending the investigation, which could take several weeks or months and is also standard procedure.

After the search warrant was granted by a judge, police seized from outside the home a total of nine spent .40-caliber shell casings from the driveway and surrounding yards, an expandable baton from the front yard and a magazine containing 10 .40-caliber rounds.

Inside the home’s living room, police found a 9 mm Sig-Sauer P226 semi-automatic piston, clothes, a wallet, cash and handcuffs. In the home’s freezer, they found a spent bullet, according to the records. Police did not report recovering any 9 mm shell casings.

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Dionne’s sister, Chasity Dionne, told the Press Herald previously that her brother was shot from outside the house, and wonders how police could have had a threatening interaction with him, and if they could have done more to defuse the situation.

“He was alone in the house,” Chasity Dionne said previously. “He didn’t even come outside. How could he have confronted them? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Earlier that night, Chasity Dionne said, her brother had a bonfire at the home. She also said he suffered from an unspecified mental illness.

Dionne was a mechanic who had recently started his own car repair business in Biddeford, which is listed on Facebook at 497 Elm St.

The last posting on the page was dated Sunday, May 28.

“We will be closed on Monday 5/29 for Memorial Day,” the message reads. “Everyone have a safe and Happy Memorial Day!”


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