A registered sex offender with a history of domestic violence went on a deadly rampage over a large swath of northern Maine early Friday, killing two men and injuring four other people, police say.

Authorities launched a massive manhunt to find Anthony Lord, 35, who at one point during a high-speed chase was shooting at a pursuing officer out of the window of a stolen pickup. A 21-year-old woman whom Lord kidnapped was found safe, Maine State Police said at a news conference Friday. Brittany Irish was found with Lord in Houlton on Friday afternoon at the home of Lord’s uncle. Irish and Lord know each other, but police did not say how.

Investigators were trying to piece together a motive for Lord’s crime spree, which included stealing two vehicles, shooting out the windows of his brother’s house and possibly setting a barn on fire.

Lord, who lives in the towns of Crystal and Sherman, has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of kidnapping and may face other charges.

One of those killed was Kyle Hewitt, 22, Irish’s boyfriend. The other was Kevin Tozier, 58, of Lee, who was shot when Lord allegedly stole a pulp truck from a woodlot in Lee, police said.

Irish’s mother, Kim Irish, 55 was wounded, as was Clayton McCarthy, 55, owner of the pulp truck and Carlton Eddy, who was shot while driving his pickup near Irish’s home, police said.

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State police say the victims were injured Thursday night and Friday morning in Lee, Benedicta and Silver Ridge Township.

Officials first received a report at 8:30 p.m. Thursday of a barn on fire on Aroostook Road in Benedicta, at a residence where Irish lives with her parents. Lord is a suspect in the fire, which is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

At 4:40 a.m. Friday, authorities received a report that Kary Mayo of Silver Ridge Township had been tied up and assaulted in his home and had guns and a pickup truck stolen, allegedly by Lord. Ten minutes later, the windows at Lord’s brother’s residence in Benedicta were shot out.

Police received a call 25 minutes after that, saying that a man and a woman at the home where the barn had burned had been shot. The man, Hewitt, was taken by Lifeflight helicopter to a nearby hospital where he died.

Eddy, who drove by the burning barn and turned around in the driveway at about the same time, was shot in the shoulder through his passenger’s side window, police said.

Lord left that house with Irish, police said.

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At about 5:50 a.m., an East Millinocket officer spotted the pickup and tried to pull it over but it sped off, police said. As the officer chased the stolen pickup, Lord started shooting out the window at the officer, police said. The officer, who was not injured, lost track of the pickup near Route 157 in Crystal.

The search for Lord was joined by a number of state, local, federal and county law enforcement agencies.

Police then learned of the shooting of McCarthy and Tozier, who were working in a wood lot on Winn Road in Lee. Tozier died of his injuries and a pulp truck was stolen from the wood lot. It was later recovered n Haynesville. Authorities shut down roads around the town of Lee in Penobscot County on Friday morning while authorities searched for Lord. The roads have since been reopened.

Aroostook Medical Center went into lockdown just before 8 a.m. Friday as a precaution, and security was increased after hospital officials learned that one of its employees had a connection to one of the victims and believed Lord might try to reach the employee, according to a release from Jason Parent, director of advancement at Aroostook Medical Center. The lockdown was lifted Friday afternoon.

Lord, had been described as armed and dangerous. He was arrested without incident after a relative told police where he was, police said.

Lord is being held at Aroostook County Jail and is expected to make an initial court appearance next week. Lord was described as 5-foot-9, 263 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes.

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Police said as of Friday afternoon, they had not identified a motive.

Lord’s 6-month-old son, Larry Earl Lord, died May 7 in Bangor. State police continue to investigate the circumstances of the child’s death, spokesman Stephen McCausland said. The State Medical Examiner has not determined a cause of death pending further studies, according to a spokesman for the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

Lord has a lengthy criminal history dating to 1999, when he was a teenager, including arrests for gross sexual assault, assault and theft. His most recent criminal charge was in January, when he assaulted his then-girlfriend.

Lord grabbed the woman by the throat, called her names and pushed her into a doorframe while their children were present. Lord was sentenced to serve 45 days of a 10-month sentence, two years probation and ordered to attend a batterers intervention program. He recently tried to get his probation amended so he did not have to attend the intervention program and so he could have contact with his victim, Penobscot County District Attorney Christopher Almy said. Prosecutors objected out of concern for the victim’s safety.

While Lord was at large on Friday, prosecutors located the former girlfriend to make sure she was safe.

Lee, which has an estimated population of 922 people, according to the 2010 Census, is located about 60 miles northeast of Bangor on Route 6. Benedicta and Silver Ridge are more than 30 miles north of Lee, in southern Aroostook County.

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Staff Writer Eric Russell contributed to this story.

David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

dhench@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Mainehenchman


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