LOVELL — An Oxford County deputy shot a local man early Wednesday morning when he created an armed confrontation with officers, Sheriff Wayne Gallant said.
Dennis Buffington, 31, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to Bridgton Hospital before being flown to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Gallant said.
Buffington was shot by Cpl. George Cayer, who has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, which is standard procedure.
Pending that report, Gallant declined to comment on the specifics surrounding the shooting. He said Buffington created a disturbance on Nuthatch Road around 1 a.m. and by 3:30 a.m. the situation was over.
As of Wednesday morning, Buffington was still alive. No further information about his injuries or motives was available.
According to Maine State Police Lt. Walter Grzyb, police were called to a house at 52 Nuthatch Road. The shooting occurred in the area of 50 Nuthatch Road. A trailer there had been cordoned off with police tape by Wednesday afternoon.
Grzyb said the occupants of the trailer and the house are related, but he declined to comment further, citing the pending investigation.
Not far from summer homes on Kezar Lake, Nuthatch Road is a dead-end dirt road with a handful of homes. Nearby homes were not evacuated because the incident did not require it, Grzyb said.
The home where police were initially called is owned by Susan Sinecio, according to town tax records.
State police and representatives from the AG’s Office were at the scene and had interviewed multiple witnesses, Grzyb said.
Buffington has no prior violent criminal history, Gallant said.
The shooting is believed to be the first use of deadly force in Oxford County since state police fatally shot a Norway man after a car heist in Norway in August 2014.
A few miles from the Nuthatch Road scene Wednesday at the Charlotte Hobbs Library in the village center, resident John Tom said he was shocked to hear reports of a shooting.
“Around here, word usually gets around by calling a mechanic,” Tom said.
“I hope it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
ccrosby@sunmediagroup.net
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