A bail hearing will be held, now that Vince Berube will be discharged from
St. Mary’s.
AUBURN – The 43-year-old Norway man who was shot by Lewiston police in December after nearly attacking one of them with a hammer will be back in court Thursday.
Vince Berube has spent the past three weeks in the psychiatric unit at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center.
Last month, Berube pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of criminal threatening and criminal mischief.
He was released without bail on the condition that he would be admitted to the Lewiston hospital and he would return to court if doctors decided he was ready to be discharged.
That time has come, according to court papers.
As a result, Berube will appear in Androscoggin County Superior Court Thursday at 1 p.m. for a bail hearing.
According to a police affidavit, Berube was bleeding from both wrists and several small cuts on his chest when he showed up at the Lewiston police station on Dec. 17 and started smashing police cruisers with a hammer.
Officer Carley Conley approached Berube after she heard him banging on the cars and yelling obscenities, Detective Brian O’Malley wrote in his affidavit.
As soon as Berube saw Conley, he raised the hammer above his head and charged toward her. According to the affidavit, Berube ignored Conley’s orders to drop the hammer, prompting her to draw her gun and shoot him.
Officers Matt Vierling and Eric Syphers heard the shots, ran into the yard and fired more shots at Berube.
The Lewiston Police Department has called the incident “a clean shooting.” Under normal procedure, the case has been handed over to the Attorney General’s Office for an investigation.
Berube spent a month recovering from the gunshot wounds at Central Maine Medical Center before being transferred to St. Mary’s.
His plea of not guilty by reason of insanity means he believes he cannot be held responsible for his actions because a mental disease or defect caused him to lack the capacity to understand that he was doing something wrong.
If convicted of the charges, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
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