HOWLAND — The armed man who was shot early Saturday morning by a Maine State Police trooper who went to check on his well-being has improved, a nursing supervisor at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor said Sunday morning.

“He’s in fair condition,” she said.

Dale Saucier, 36, of Howland underwent emergency surgery at EMMC after the shooting, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

A nursing supervisor at EMMC said Saucier was in serious condition on Saturday, which means his condition has improved over the last day.

Police are not saying why Saucier called police just before midnight Friday but are saying he was armed when Trooper Benjamin Campbell arrived.

“I’m not getting into that other than [to say] there was a call made to state police in Bangor, and the context of it was serious enough it was felt a trooper needed to check on his well-being,” McCausland said.

“The specifics will come out in the AG’s investigation, upon its completion,” he said, referring to the Maine attorney general’s office.

Campbell, who was patrolling nearby when he was dispatched to Water Street, parked his cruiser near the residence, which is close to Penobscot Valley High School.

“He was dispatched at 11:55 p.m., and the shooting occurred in the first few minutes of Saturday morning,” McCausland said. “It was a short time after he arrived.”

Campbell was placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an investigation being conducted by the attorney general’s office, as is standard procedure.

Campbell, other troopers and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department deputies also responded to the scene of the shooting.

Investigators could be seen at about 2 p.m. Saturday interviewing three or four witnesses in the common yard shared by homes in the neighborhood.

BDN Reporter Nick Sambides contributed to this story.

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