SACO – A man was dead, a woman was being questioned and a stretch of highway was closed Thursday night after a police chase and shootout on the Maine Turnpike.
The chase that began in Portland at about 5 p.m. ended nearly three hours later in Saco when a man driving the car being pursued shot and killed himself, police said.
A woman who had been riding in his car jumped from the vehicle and ran to safety as the chase came to an end, police said.
A Maine State Police trooper was grazed by either a bullet or glass fragments when the rear window of his cruiser was shot out during the pursuit, police said. “At one point, the driver of the vehicle being pursued fired a shot at a state police cruiser,” said Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland. “The shot blew out the rear window of the cruiser.”
Maine State Police Trooper John Kyle was examined for injuries described as minor.
Late Thursday night, police said it appeared the man and woman driving in the car were in Maine hiding from federal agents searching for them. Neither was identified. Neither is believed to be from Maine.
Police closed down a section of the Maine Turnpike near Mile 35 after the driver came to a stop on the southbound section, police said. The woman who ran from the car was taken into police custody moments later.
For roughly two hours, a tactical team assembled along the turnpike as police stopped traffic and cleared civilians from the area. McCausland said at least one gunshot was heard from the area where the car had stopped.
“Eventually, the tactical team got close enough to determine that the driver had shot himself,” McCausland said.
Police said the chase began at about 5 p.m. when Portland police and agents from the U.S. Marshal’s Service attempted to stop a vehicle in Portland. Police were after the driver, who was wanted for failure to appear in court in another state on a federal firearms charge.
After the driver had crashed to the side of the road on the turnpike, police closed turnpike traffic in both directions, leading to a traffic tie-up that continued hours after the initial confrontation.
The woman who fled from the victim’s car was being questioned by federal agents late Thursday night. McCausland said it was believed she knew that the man she had been riding with was wanted.
“We think they were up here hiding,” the spokesman said.
McCausland said police were not identifying the victim of the shooting late Thursday because family members had not been notified.
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