Maine State Police detectives take photos Friday while interviewing a woman following a fatal shooting at a towing company in Augusta. Police say Tyler Morin, 36, of Lewiston died in the shooting. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal file

AUGUSTA — A gunshot wound to the chest killed a Lewiston man who police say was shot at an Augusta towing company Friday, a death the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has classified as a homicide.

Tyler Morin, 36, was shot and killed Friday at Ready Road Service’s site at 605 Riverside Drive in Augusta.

No arrests have been made following the incident, and police have not yet released the identity of the shooter. The case is under investigation by Maine State Police and Augusta Police.

Lindsey Chasteen, office administrator for the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said Wednesday an autopsy indicated the cause of Morin’s death was “gunshot wound of chest,” and the manner of his death was “homicide.”

Lt. Jeffrey Love of the Maine State Police said the shooting took place around 10:55 a.m. Friday and that police were investigating the circumstances of Morin’s death.

Love declined to provide more details while at the scene last week. But officials at the scene, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation, said it appeared Morin was shot while attempting to recover a vehicle from the towing company’s impound lot, and may have nearly struck an employee with the vehicle.

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Love said that police recovered a “Cadillac SUV” from the garage of an abandoned house property near the towing company site. A 78-year-old woman who lives nearby and declined to identify herself said no one lives at the house. She also, the day of the shooting, said the car wasn’t at the house the previous day.

The owner of Ready Road Service could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

A GoFundMe page setup to raise funds for Morin’s funeral expenses includes photographs of Morin with children and describes him as “A beloved son, father, and friend,” who left behind one son, one daughter and one baby on the way. The site says donations will be used to help Morin’s family pay cremation expenses and any remaining funds would go toward a trust fund for his children.

“Tyler was a family man who enlightened the room every chance he had,” according to the fundraising page, organized by family. “It’s so hard to come up with words to express our feelings, as we are hurting, crushed and grieving. We ask you to pray for Tyler’s family, his friends and all of us who are feeling this tremendous loss.”

Morin had run-ins with Maine’s criminal justice system dating back to 2005, according to a background check from the Maine Department of Public Safety. Most recently, he faced misdemeanor-level charges of violating a protection from abuse order and violating conditions of release, in Androscoggin County in June 2021.

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