LEWISTON — A Berwick man police said was “severely injured” during an attempted robbery in an Auburn parking lot last winter failed to show up in court this week on related felony charges.
A Maine State Police officer investigates a Feb. 24 shooting in the Auburn Plaza parking lot. Evidence tags mark shell casings to the right of a vehicle involved in the incident. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
Damian I. Walter, 19, had been scheduled for arraignment Thursday in 8th District Court.
An Androscoggin County grand jury indicted Walter earlier this month on two counts of Class B robbery, each charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
When he failed to appear in court to enter pleas to the charges, the presiding judge issued a warrant for Walter’s arrest, according to court records.
After his Aug. 4 indictment, he was issued a summons on the charges, but hadn’t been arrested due to his medical condition from the shooting on the night of Feb. 24 during what police said was an attempted robbery of a couple in the Auburn Plaza parking lot outside Planet Fitness.
Walter suffered a chest wound and was taken to a local hospital for treatment, police said.
Police identified two alleged accomplices.
William Beasley, 18, of 25 Harvard St. was charged last month with two counts of felony robbery in connection with the case.
Pierre Rouse, 16, was charged in a juvenile petition with liability accomplice robbery, a felony for his alleged role as getaway driver, according to court records.
Police said they responded to the scene of a shooting after midnight on Feb. 24 to find Beasley attempting to provide first aid to a man, later identified as Walter, lying on the ground and bleeding from a gunshot wound.
A man and a woman at the scene who reported the incident told police they were talking together in the woman’s vehicle after work when Beasley and Walter approached their vehicle, showed them a revolver and “demanded their money and cellphones.”
The male robbery victim told Beasley and Walter that he needed to get it from his vehicle, parked nearby.
Police said the male robbery victim pulled a 9 mm handgun from his vehicle and fired multiple shots at Beasley and Walter, who began running away.
The male robbery victim told police he was trying to scare the two robbers by firing shots in the air or behind them.
One of the shots struck Walter, who was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston where he had been reported to be in critical condition.
The man who fired the shots wasn’t charged. Prosecutors said his actions had been justified under Maine’s self-defense laws.
The weapon brandished by Beasley and Walter that night turned out to be a BB gun designed to look like a revolver.
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