A 46-year-old New Gloucester man working for a private corporation providing security in Iraq died after being shot by a sniper while conducting an overnight patrol near Tikrit.

Darrell Wetherbee of New Gloucester had been a police officer in Freeport for 10 years before signing on for security work with DynCorp International.

The WB channel affiliate reported the slaying Sunday night on its 10 p.m. WCSH news broadcast.

The Portland television station said Wetherbee’s wife, who it didn’t identify on its Web site, confirmed his death.

Channel 6 reported that she said her husband “lived life large.”

A telephone number for the New Gloucester family wasn’t published.

Wetherbee had been initially assigned to work in Afghanistan, the station reported, but opted instead for an assignment in Iraq.

No one answered the phone at DynCorp’s Falls Church, Va., offices Sunday night.

DynCorp International bills itself as a “multifaceted, global enterprise that provides innovative solutions to the diverse technology and professional services needs of government and commercial industry worldwide.”

DynCorp previously reported in news releases on the deaths of two international police trainers who were killed in southern Iraq in January, and a third police trainer who was killed there in May. A fourth DynCorp police trainer was also killed in May, but near Islam Qala in the province of Herat, in Afghanistan.

WCSH reported that Wetherbee leaves his wife and three children.

In the Afghani killing, the security worker died as a result of an ambush that left five others injured. In Iraq, the deaths were the result of improvised roadside explosive devices.

On a Web page showing Afghan leader Hamid Karzai surrounded by security workers, DynCorp states it specializes in providing “comprehensive security solutions” that combine “the right mix of advanced technology with expert human judgment.”