Police: Cushing man shoots woman, shoots at trooper before turning gun on himself

Incident occurred in Jefferson Monday night
Tue, 08/16/2016 - 6:15am

State Police say a woman was wounded and her assailant later shot and killed himself after exchanging fire with a trooper in Jefferson last night.

The shooter, Shane Prior, 34, of Cushing, died after a short chase with troopers on Route 32. The woman was shot in the arm outside a house where she was staying on Somerville Road. She was taken to Miles Memorial Hospital for treatment of her gunshot wound. Troopers responding to her domestic violence shooting discovered Prior driving his pickup leaving the scene and chased him about three miles onto Route 32 where he stopped his truck and fired a shot at a trooper, who returned fire.

Prior then shot himself in the head inside the truck. The trooper, Sgt. Jason Madore, was not injured and has been placed on administrative leave with pay as the Maine Attorney General’s Office investigates the police involvement with the shooting. That is standard procedure for all police-involved shootings in Maine.

The State Medical Examiner’s Office has determined that Prior died from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and the death was ruled a suicide. Route 32 was closed during the night and has now reopened.

Due to the woman’s shooting being an incident of domestic violence, the Wiscasset Newspaper is not identifying her.