LEWISTON — A Massachusetts man was indicted Thursday, accused of pointing a gun at a woman’s head and firing shots on a crowded Bartlett Street sidewalk in June.

Nathaniel D. Ashwood, 32, of Springfield, was charged with attempted murder, robbery, reckless conduct with a firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm stemming from the June 12 shooting rampage.
According to witnesses and surveillance video, on that early evening, Ashwood was walking through a crowd of people including women and children, when he confronted a woman, asking if she was laughing at him.
He pulled a gun from his waistband and aimed it at her head and told her to give him all of her money, according to an affidavit by police Detective Joey Brown.
When the woman refused, Ashwood pulled the trigger, but the gun only clicked and didn’t fire. He racked the slide back on the gun as people in the area scattered, including the woman.
Ashwood ran from the woman, but fired shots in her direction, witnesses said.
Police later recovered nine shell casings from the area of 129 Bartlett St., where the confrontation occurred and along the street in the direction Ashwood ran, Brown wrote in his affidavit.
Brown arrested Ashwood minutes after the shooting when he spotted the suspect being chased up nearby Blake Street.
Police said Ashwood has previous felony convictions in Massachusetts, including several for assaults.
Ashwood has remained in custody at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn since his arrest. His bail is set at $200,000.
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