A man was arrested Saturday night after authorities said he trespassed at a mobile home in Chesterville, sparking a 10-hour standoff with police as he holed up inside with a pellet gun and cross bow.

The man, Vance Billings, 41, of Carthage, was charged with aggravated criminal trespass and mischief, assault and violating conditions of release, according to a news release Sunday morning from Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, and his arrest information at Franklin County Jail.

Billings surrendered to a Maine State Police tactical team Saturday night following the standoff, which McCausland said came after Billings refused the leave the mobile home of another man whom he had assaulted earlier in the day. The man had left the Horseshoe Pond Road home earlier and was treated and released from an unidentified hospital, McCausland said.

During the 10-hour standoff, Billings refused to talk with police during the day and was armed with a high power pellet gun and a cross bow inside the home.

Following his arrest, Billings was taken to the Franklin County Jail in Farmington.

McCausland said Sunday that Billings had been at the mobile Friday night and the man who lives there had an issue with him that night and called state police and sheriff’s deputies, but he did not press charges.

Billings stayed at the home Friday night into Saturday and assaulted the man, who left and called police and that is when the standoff began with Billings, according to McCausland.

He said he did not know why Billings was out on bail at the time or what his charges were.


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