5 p.m.

Portland police have charged a 30-year-old man with making a false report that triggered a two-hour search and lockdown of a neighborhood next to the Eastern Promenade.

Police say Christopher Sanborn of Gorham called a crisis hotline at 12:25 Friday afternoon and said he was hiding in the brush on Eastern Promenade, ready to shoot himself and any police officers who approached. He said he was an Iraq war veteran, armed and dressed in camouflage, police said.

While officers searched the neighborhood, other officers detained Sanborn in the Riverton section of Portland several miles away. Police say Sanborn at first claimed to represent the military and to know the caller, but his cell phone records showed that he made the original crisis call to the hotline.

Sanborn was not armed, has no military connection and fabricated the whole report, police said.

He was arrested on Forest Avenue at the Westbrook city line.  He is charged with filing a false public report, creating a police standoff and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.

2:46 p.m.

Portland Police have detained a 30-year-old man who allegedly threatened to commit suicide and shoot any police officers who came into contact with him.

Police say the man called a crisis hotline at 12:25 p.m. and said he was a military veteran, recently divorced and wearing camouflage and that he was on the Eastern Promenade.

“He said he was willing to kill any police office he had contact with,” said Acting Police Chief Michael Sauschuck.

Police blocked off several streets on the Eastern Promenade and set up a command center at the East End Community School.

Shortly after 2 p.m., police identified the caller and took him into custody. He was detained in the Riverton neighborhood, several miles away from the Eastern Promenade.

Chief Sauschuck did identify the man.

It wasn’t clear whether the call was a prank. The man was not armed and has not been arrested or charged.
 

 

2:29 p.m.

PORTLAND — Portland police have set up a command center at the East End Community School on North Street on Portland’s Munjoy Hill.

Cruisers have blocked traffic to several streets between the school and the Eastern Promenade.

Commander Vern Malloc would not comment on the nature of the incident and said information would be provided.

 

2:04 p.m.

PORTLAND — Police have shut down part of the Portland’s East End as they search for a man who’s believed to be armed.