Police respond to 2 unrelated incidents within a mile of each other

Police vehicles line Androscoggin Road near where Lydia Mills, 41, of Bethel was arrested after a four-hour standoff at her 7 Acres Road residence in Bethel on Jan. 14. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

BETHEL — The Oxford County Sheriff’s deputies were in Bethel for two unrelated incidents this week.

On Saturday, January 14, six police cars a lined Androscoggin Road off Barker Street. Two more vehicles were at the house and an ambulance was across Baker Street on standby.

“There is a single person in the house that we’re talking to,” said Deputy Matthew Baker. He was blocking entry to where 41 year-old, Lydia Mills had assaulted her husband. She would not exit the house and police believed she had a gun.

At 1:41 p.m., Amy and David Hanscom had been waiting on standby in their ambulance for two hours and would wait another two hours before police made the arrest.

Mills surrendered to deputies after 2 p.m. She was charged with two counts of domestic violence assault and was transported to Oxford County Jail.

Chance Bellanceau, 29, of Portland is charged with assaulting three Oxford County Sheriff’s deputies with saw blades and other items Thursday night at this home at 339 West Bethel Road in Bethel, Chief Deputy James Urquhart said. He is being held at the Oxford County Jail in Paris. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen

West Bethel Road

Two days earlier, on Thursday January 12, and less than a mile away at 339 West Bethel Road, police arrested a Portland man, Chance Bellanceau, age 29.

The Sheriff’s Office had received a call at 8:45 p.m. Thursday from the homeowner at 339 West Bethel Road for a reported unwanted, out-of-control person identified as Bellanceau.

According to Oxford County Chief Deputy Chief James Urquhart, Bellanceau was confronted by deputies and was highly agitated and combative. During the incident, he began throwing saw blades, shovels and other items at them. After deputies called for additional law enforcement units, Bellanceau was taken into custody after a physical altercation with officers.

During the altercation and arrest, three deputies were injured. They were either treated at the scene or at a local hospital and released and are back on duty, Urquhart said.

Bellanceau was charged with three counts of assault on an officer and one count each of reckless conduct with a weapon, aggravated criminal mischief, refusing to submit to arrest and violation of conditions of release, Urquhart said in a news release.