AUBURN – The bodies of a mother and son are in Augusta, awaiting autopsies following a horrific shooting and police standoff on Minot Avenue on Friday.

The body of Margaret Peters, 70, was finally removed from the driveway of her 1806 Minot Ave. home just before dawn Saturday. The woman, whom neighbors describe as sickly and feeble, was apparently shot nearly 20 hours earlier by her son, James Michael Peters, 42, who was living in the basement of the modest ranch-style home.

The home, pocked with pink stains from tear-gas canisters and bullet holes, was the scene of a 17-hour standoff between police tactical units and James Michael Peters, who was holed up in the house with a weapon.

Just after 3 a.m., police stormed the house and found Peters in a back room, dead, with an AK-47 nearby. It is unclear whether he died of suicide or from a shot fired by police.

“That’s a determination that will be made by the AG’s office,” said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. But police are working on the assumption that Peters died as a result of one of the shots fired by officers, he said.

Autopsies are expected to be performed on Margaret Peters today by the Maine Medical Examiner’s Office and on James Michael Peters on Monday.

The police storm early Saturday ended a daylong siege that started around 10 a.m. and involved dozens of police officers, closed one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares and forced the evacuation of neighbors from their homes.

A tactical unit from New Hampshire arrived around 11 p.m. Friday to assist Maine’s State Police tactical unit in the final hours. Police negotiators repeatedly tried to make contact with Peters, calling him more than 100 times and speaking to him through a bullhorn, offering him a chance to get food or cigarettes.

“But there was no verbal contact with him throughout the entire incident,” said McCausland.

Dozens of canisters of tear gas and percussion grenades were lobbed into the home to force Peters out but, they, too, proved ineffective. It was after the last unanswered volley of tear gas that police decided to enter the home.

McCausland said Peters’ body was found in a back room near a window where he and tactical police exchanged gunfire around 5:30 p.m.

Police then secured the scene and processed the house for evidence. Earlier in the night, an armored police vehicle rammed the garage door so police could have a full view of its interior. Minot Avenue was reopened to traffic around 10 a.m. Saturday.

McCausland said police would inventory any firearms found in the house. Neighbors of the Peters said Wilbur Peters, the deceased husband of Margaret, had been in the Navy and had firearms at home. One said James Michael Peters would sometimes shoot rifles off in the backyard, where the Androscoggin River draws a lot of geese and ducks.

But the sound of Friday’s blast was different.

“This shot was something else … a very powerful gun,” said Bob Lamontagne, a neighbor. “My wife said, ‘Bob, who in the world is shooting at quarter of 10 in the morning?'”

Lamontagne spoke highly of Wilbur Peters, whom he described as the “nicest guy you could ever have” as a neighbor. He knew Margaret Peters less well, saying she stayed indoors all the time because of health problems. The couple had planned on moving to Florida.

But two years ago, Wilbur Peters choked on food and died as paramedics arrived at his home, said Lamontagne. He said the Peters’ son, James Michael, was there at the time and never tried to revive his father or even offer to drive his mother to the hospital.

“He was very rowdy with his mother,” said Lamontagne, adding that James Michael would often have friends over, loudly partying into the night. At times, he added, the son would scream at his mother.

“There was no such thing when his dad was alive,” he said.

Another son, 45-year-old John Peters, committed suicide in 2006 in his New Auburn apartment. Friends of the family said Margaret described James Michael as a severe alcoholic and was afraid of him. He received disability checks and did not work.

Lamontagne said he had no idea what could have triggered the son’s attack on his mother.

“Well, she won’t suffer any more,” he said. “God came and got her.”