Gunfire on Maine highway linked to 4 bodies in home, police say

YARMOUTH, Maine — Gunfire that erupted on busy highway in Maine is linked to a second crime scene where four people were found dead in a home about 25 miles away in the town of Bowdoin, state police said Tuesday.

Three people were injured in the shooting that followed on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth. One person was in custody after the highway shooting. At least one of the injured people was seriously hurt.

Some police at the scene along I-295 carried rifles or peered inside the trunk of a car that had apparent bullet holes in the windshield. Witnesses told reporters they saw one person in handcuffs.

Yarmouth is a community of 9,000 about 12 miles north of Portland, the state’s largest city, which I-295 connects to the state capital, Augusta.

Traffic backed up on the interstate as police halted traffic, and state, county and local police canvassed the area, state police spokesperson Shannon Moss said. Representatives for the Maine Department of Transportation said they closed the southbound side of I-295 in Yarmouth in late morning at the request of state police.

Police briefly ordered people in nearby neighborhoods to shelter in place, but authorities later announced there was no threat to the public.

Lenora Felker, who works near the highway at Rosemont Market and Bakery, said she sensed something was afoot when people started streaming in, saying the highway was closed, followed by dozens of law enforcement officers who descended on the area.

Officers canvassed businesses asking if they had seen “anyone that was wet and muddy fleeing,” Felker said. But she knew all the customers and didn’t see anything “out of the ordinary,” she said.

Sharp reported from Portland. Associated Press writers Michael Casey and Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed to this report.