4 found fatally shot in Maine home before 3 others wounded in linked highway shooting

Four people were fatally shot in a Maine home before three others were shot and wounded on a busy highway about 25 miles away in a linked shooting, cops said.

The bodies were discovered in a home in Bowdoin before gunfire erupted on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth, injuring three people who were inside their vehicles around 10:30 a.m., according to police.

One person has been taken into custody but their identity was not immediately released.

Maine State Police confirmed that the two shootings were related, but have not provided a motive, police spokesperson Shannon Moss said.

“We are confident that there is no imminent threat to the general public at this time,” said Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry, whose deputies were assisting in Bowdoin. 

There was a heavy police presence following the highway shooting in Yarmouth — a city of about 9,000 people about 12 miles north of Portland. Officers near the scene were carrying rifles 

At one point, heavily armed officers peered inside the trunk of a car that had apparent bullet holes in the windshield at an off-ramp. 

Witnesses told The Associated Press they saw one person in handcuffs.

The scene brought traffic to a halt on the highway — which connects Maine’s largest city, Portland, with the state capital in Augusta.

Employees at Water Treatment Equipment Inc., a business near the highway scene, were forced to shelter in place for 90 minutes before police lifted the lockdown order, manager Kim Snyder said.

“It definitely shifted the day, and the worry kicked in,” she said. “They hadn’t caught the active shooter. We didn’t know what was going on. There was a lot of the unknowns.”

Yellow police tape surrounded the home where the bodies were found in Bowdoin. About 10 marked and unmarked police cars were at the scene.

The home is at the end of a long, gravel driveway in a wooded area.

Bowdoin is a typically quiet rural farming community with about 3,000 residents and home to Bowdoin College.

With Post Wires