Updated at 2:15 p.m.
BENTON — An intoxicated man who threatened to kill his brother, prompting an armed police response Monday, was apprehended Tuesday morning in the Bangor area, police said.
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Winslow officer Joshua Veilleux said the man was found in the town of Levant after authorities were able to trace his cell phone signal. It appears as though the 50-year-old man spent Monday morning and afternoon in the Waldo County town of Frankfort and then the evening in Bangor, even though he initially claimed to be in the Winslow/ Benton area when he made the threat.
No weapons were found when police searched the man and his car, Veilleux said.
The man, who lives in the Albion area, was not identified by police because he has not been charged. Police searched for the man in several places in Winslow and Benton — at one point with guns drawn as they inspected a residence in Benton — and the investigating officer even spoke with him on the phone and communicated through text messages.
Police received a report Monday morning from a man who said that one of his brothers — who has depression, had been neglecting his medication and was in a “pretty dark place” — had threatened to kill their other brother who he didn’t get along with. The threat was that the brother would be killed at his workplace in Winslow.
“We went over there and made him aware (of the threat),” Veilleux said. “He was concerned because his wife and child were at home.”
The troubled man then sent a text message that he was armed with a gun, in a field behind his brother’s house in Benton, waiting for the brother to come home. Veilleux and Winslow Police Chief Jeffrey Fenlason searched the property, with guns drawn, and were joined by a Maine State Police trooper.
“I got the wife and kid out the house and to a safe location,” Veilleux said. “But it sounded more like he was toying with us and probably at a different location far away. While we were on scene at the house the other brother was getting text messages and he kept saying that he can see police. I told him to describe what police were wearing, but he didn’t respond.”
Then, Veilleux directly texted the Albion man, who called the officer by phone.
“It shocked the heck out of me,” Veilleux said. “We talked for two to three minutes and he told me he was looking at me, and when I said to describe what the cruiser looks like he started laughing.
“He said he was really upset with his brother and wanted to kick his ass. Now, there’s a difference between kicking his ass and killing the guy.”
Veilleux said the Albion man sounded intoxicated but it was unclear whether he actually had a gun, as he had claimed. The Albion man’s wife told police that she believed all available weapons at their house has been locked up, Veilleux said.
Veilleux continued to text the man Monday afternoon, trying to convince him to turn himself in so he could receive help. But the man stopped responding to the officer’s text messages during the afternoon and family members had not heard from him for several hours.
“He may have done some bluffing,” Veilleux said, “not thinking this would be reported to the police.”
Scott Monroe — 861-9239
smonroe@centralmaine.com
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