Officer Ryan Dinsmore of the Waterville Police Department walks Tuesday afternoon along Yeaton Street as he gathers witness statements after a shot was fired. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
WATERVILLE — A Waterville man remained behind bars Wednesday after being arrested a day earlier after a shot was fired on Yeaton Street.
John Rastrom Photo courtesy of Waterville Police Department
John Rastrom, 28, of 72 Yeaton St., was charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, a Class C felony, and threatening display of a weapon, Class D, and taken to Kennebec County Jail in Augusta, according to police Chief Joseph Massey.
A jail spokesman said late Wednesday morning that Rastrom remained at the facility and his bail was set at $3,500 cash. He was scheduled to appear in Kennebec County Superior Court on Sept. 27, according to Massey.
“He was not the one that fired the weapon,” Massey said Wednesday. “There was another party to this incident that actually fired the weapon. We’re still trying to sort out all the information. There were a lot of witnesses to this incident. What I can say is there was an altercation between Rastrom and another individual. Rastrom pointed his weapon at that other person and that person also was armed and fired one shot, in self-defense, at Rastrom. That’s what we have right now. We’re continuing to investigate.”
The shooting occurred around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday near 68 Yeaton St., which connects 1st Rangeway with Cool Street. No one was injured, Massey said at the scene, just north of Kennedy Memorial Drive.
Officers from Waterville, Maine State Police and the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, along with crews from Delta Ambulance, converged on the area after police began receiving calls about gunfire. Delta crews on 1st Rangeway helped to direct traffic around the scene, as streets in the area were blocked off.
Rastrom’s house at 72 Yeaton is adjacent to 68. Heather Doucette, who lives across the street from 68, said Tuesday that she heard a pop near that house and then shouting. She at first thought it was a firecracker, she said.
“I saw the guy across the street (at 68 Yeaton) freaking out, so I opened the door and he went back in his house,” said Doucette, 44. “They just moved in two or three weeks ago.”
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