DALLAS PLANTATION – Rangeley police Chief Phil Weymouth knew he wouldn’t make it out of the driveway if the man with a rifle aimed at him decided to shoot.

The suspect didn’t shoot, but he did hold police at bay for six hours. About 25 officers from Rangeley, Franklin County Sheriff’s Department and the Maine State Police Tactical Unit responded.

Joshua Settle, 30, of Dallas Plantation was charged with terrorizing, and creating a police standoff. In the end, tear gas was used by officials as Settle tried to drive off, Franklin County Sheriff Lt. Niles Yeaton said.

Settle is being held on $25,000 cash bail or $100,000 surety.

Settle had allegedly holed up in a house on Dallas Hill Road, Yeaton said, which is off Route 4.

The incident started about 9 a.m. when Weymouth received a call from a Franklin County dispatcher saying a woman needed to talk to him.

From things the woman told him, Weymouth said, he knew it was a problem situation. Weymouth told the woman it was out of his jurisdiction, but he would see what he could do.

“I told her, ‘Don’t worry ma’am, we’d start looking,” Weymouth said.

The chief called the county and found that the closest deputy, Michelle St. Clair, was in New Sharon.

Weymouth said he told a sheriff’s representative that he couldn’t go up there and get involved, but he said he would do a drive-by to see what was going on.

From the conversation with the woman, Weymouth said, he knew it needed to be checked out immediately.

As Weymouth drew close to the apartment where the suspect supposedly lived, he told a deputy, “I don’t mind keeping him safe, but you need to get here.”

Weymouth had a description of an automobile that might be involved.

A few minutes later, a car fitting the description screeched out of a driveway, Weymouth said.

“As he goes by, he flips me the bird,” Weymouth said.

Weymouth called the deputy again. “I knew this guy was not going to come out easy.”

Weymouth said he turned his vehicle around and started to follow but couldn’t find the man or the car.

“He was gone,” Weymouth said.

Weymouth said he went back up the road and spotted some tire tracks going into a residence, the new dirt driveway churned up by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed. But he couldn’t see a vehicle.

The tracks led behind the house. Weymouth followed the tracks into the driveway and saw the car.

At least, “we knew where he was,” Weymouth said.

Weymouth said he put the vehicle in reverse and started to back out of the driveway when he saw movement through the window.

“As I’m watching, I see him, he’s crouched up and making his way to the window,” Weymouth said.

“I see he’s got a rifle. . . . And I see he has stuck the rifle out the window and taken aim at me – I was waiting for (the bullet to hit me), hoping I would make it to the road, because I knew I wasn’t going to make it if he decided to shoot.”

Weymouth made it to the road, radioed the county sheriff again and called for more assistance.

Rangeley police officer Steve Townsend was on his day off and was listening to the scanner. He, too, came to help Weymouth, the chief said.

“In 21 years, I’ve been through a lot of things,” Weymouth said. “It’s not the first time I’ve had a gun pointed at me, I’ve even been shot at . . . Thank God I’ve never come out with a bullet hole or a knife hole.

“It’s serious. It makes you think.”

dperry@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link