LIVERMORE FALLS — The state’s Deadly Force Review Panel has released its findings on a 2021 hostage situation during which four people were held captive while negotiators from around New England tried to coax the gunman out of the home.

Ultimately, all the hostages survived while David White, 44, of Jay, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after he had been shot by a Maine State Police trooper.

In their review of the situation, the state panel recommended that the Maine Criminal Justice Academy use its reports when developing scenario-based training for law enforcement officers.

It also recommended that police investigators retrieve relevant behavioral health records in addition to medical records while analyzing situations like the one involving White.

The report did not address the revelation that a Maine State Police officer had impersonated a journalist during the deadly standoff.

The panel report revealed a number of frightening details that occurred as a mentally ill man held a family captive while placing explosives around their house and keeping police at bay for hours.

In the early morning hours March 8, 2021, White broke into the home of 64-year-old Kenneth Smith in Livermore Falls, police said. According to state reports, White was the former boyfriend of Smith’s daughter.

When White entered the home, the occupants included Smith, his adult daughter and her boyfriend and Smith’s adult granddaughter. According to the reports, Smith awoke at about 2:30 a.m. to find White in his bedroom with two firearms, zip tie wrist restraints and handcuffs.

After a scuffle, Smith was restrained at the wrists. Hours later, as the remaining occupants woke up, White also restrained the boyfriend of Smith’s daughter on the first floor of the home.

Police received the first call about the situation at about 5:20 a.m., although that call was ended when White grabbed the phone before relevant information was passed along.

Smith’s daughter later made a daring escape, running to a neighbor’s house to report the horrors happening next door. While that was happening, the hostages inside Smith’s home realized that things were escalating swiftly.

“While the boyfriend and Mr. Smith were sitting on the couch, Mr. White was also in the living room constructing pipe bombs,” according to the panel report. “The boyfriend said that he saw 8-10 pipe bombs, battery sources, and remote detonators, and he saw Mr. White placing the pipe bombs around the house.”

Police would later find 11 such pipe bombs inside the home and they were later revealed to be active explosive devices.

After the 911 calls were placed, officers from the Livermore Falls Police Department and Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office were the first to respond. Soon, though, a number of state, county and local police converged on the scene, including tactical teams from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

A police perimeter was set up around the house.

At about 10 a.m., two of the hostages were able to escape, pulling an air conditioner from an upstairs window and jumping to a porch roof and then to the ground. Smith, however, remained a hostage.

Police negotiated with White for hours, speaking to him by phone and through text messages into the evening hours, according to the report. But White refused to release his captives and was said to have remarked that all of them were going to die.

At one point, according to the report, a single pipe bomb was thrown by White into the driveway, where it exploded.

Hours into the situation, police found an opportunity to take White down in order to free Smith from the home.

“Sgt. James MacDonald, a member of the State Police Tactical Team, was assigned to a position in the second-floor bathroom of a residence behind the Smith residence,” according to the state report. “Sgt. MacDonald, armed with a rifle with a night vision scope, saw a man matching Mr. White’s description come into view in the rear door window. The man held a cell phone to his ear with his left hand.

“Sgt. MacDonald saw the man reach up and adjust a device by the door using his right hand,” according to the report.” At 11:02 p.m., Sgt. MacDonald fired one round from his rifle at the man’s upper torso. Sgt. MacDonald said that the man screamed and disappeared from the window. Mr. Smith later reported that Mr. White told him that he had been shot in the armpit. He said that Mr. White sat on the couch next to him, started to pray for forgiveness, and put his arm around Mr. Smith while holding a handgun in his other hand.”

Negotiators continued trying to communicate with White but their calls went unanswered. Soon after, while police prepared a plan to rescue Smith from the home, officers heard a single gunshot from the home “and a bullet striking the exterior wall of the house across the street.”

White had fatally shot himself in the head with a Ruger pistol, police said. Smith was able to leave the home.

Police later spent hours inside the home removing explosive devices and beginning an investigation into the affair.

The investigation by the state panel revealed that White had a long history of behavioral health issues. He had been diagnosed with bipolar depression and ADHD. According to White’s family members, he had received inpatient psychiatric care but then had abused his prescription medications.

White’s ex-girlfriend told investigators that White had been emotionally and physically abusive during their relationship and that, at times, she had feared for her safety, according to the state report.

White also had numerous run-ins with police prior to the hostage situation, according to the report, and on two occasions, in 2016 and 2019, he had been taken to a hospital for mental health evaluations.

A toxicology report associated with his postmortem exam revealed that the suspect had a higher-than-therapeutic level of amphetamine in his system during the standoff, according to the report.

Panel members ultimately praised the police efforts to deal with White in a nonlethal manner.

“The State Police Crisis Negotiation Team was instrumental throughout this prolonged hostage situation,” according to the report. “The team worked with Mr. White’s doctor to provide background information for all involved and attempted to maintain contact with Mr. White by calling his cell phone 149 times. They also reached out via text and other forms of direct messaging. They worked extremely hard to resolve this situation peacefully.”

The Deadly Force Review Panel was convened by Gov. Janet Mills in 2017 with the goal of providing “a deeper analysis of deadly force incidents.”