PARIS — James Reynolds, who shot in a confrontation with police in West Paris in June, has been indicted on three felony charges by an Oxford County grand jury. 

Reynolds, 18, is charged with burglary, theft and criminal threatening. He is accused of breaking into a seasonal house on Roy Road in West Paris on the evening of June 8 and taking beer and a hunting rifle, and threatening Maine State Police Trooper Jason Wing with the weapon. 

Wing shot Reynolds three times during the confrontation. In a report released earlier this month, the Maine Attorney General’s Office concluded Wing was justified in his use of force. 

Wing was called to the area of the burglary in the early evening of June 8 in response to a report of a suspicious person on Roy Road, according to an affidavit by State Police Detective Randall M. Keaten.

The document said Tri-County Mental Health Services called state police prior to the confrontation to relay Reynolds’ mother’s report that her son was a danger to himself and suspected he might attempt to overdose on pills.

When Wing found Reynolds near a shed at a residence owned by Charles Coughman at 32 Roy Road, the teen displayed a rifle, slung over his arm, according to Keaten’s affidavit. When ordered Reynolds to drop the weapon, he pointed the gun at the trooper, Keaten’s affidavit said. 

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In response, Wing shot Reynolds in the head, arm and leg.

Reynolds was listed in critical condition at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston for several days.

According to Keaten’s affidavit, the serial numbers on the .35-caliber lever-action rifle recovered from Reynolds matched a firearm owned by Coughman and missing from his residence. Police also recovered several cans of Budweiser Light beer in a backpack at the scene.

In an interview with police a couple of days after the incident, according to Keaten, Coughlan told police that Reynolds had broken into the residence a couple years earlier and a firearm was taken in that incident.

Coughlan also reported missing three or four cans of Budweiser Light beer from his refrigerator, according to the affidavit. 

A message left for Reynold’s attorney, Robert Laskoff, at his Lewiston office was not returned Monday afternoon. 


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