AUBURN — A local man is facing multiple charges, including aggravated attempted murder, stemming from a May standoff with police.
Daryan Saunders
An Androscoggin County grand jury rose Tuesday with eight charges against 47-year-old Daryan Bryan Saunders.
Investigators said Saunders was seeking to murder a Maine State Police trooper on May 1 during a standoff at his home at 30 Gillander Ave. when he fired a gun through a window as police approached.
That crime is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Other charges include reckless conduct with a firearm, criminal threatening with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, each count a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Saunders faces misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief, terrorizing, creating a police standoff and discharging a firearm near a dwelling.
He is being held at Androscoggin County Jail in lieu of a high cash bail.
Investigators said they later discovered Saunders had equipped himself with body armor and a semi-automatic rifle in preparation for a possible shootout with police.
The house at 30 Gillander Ave. in Auburn was damaged during a 21-hour standoff May 1 between Daryan Saunders, 47, and local and state police. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
He reportedly had shot a 9 mm gun at someone driving his truck past that house earlier that day, flattening one of the truck’s tires, police said.
That person said Saunders had had “ongoing issues” with him and others.
Police later recovered a shell casing from a 9 mm round on the lawn of the home at the location the man said Saunders had been positioned when shooting at him. Police also would later recover a Glock 9 mm handgun in the basement of the home.
Saunders is prohibited from having firearms due to a 2017 conviction, police said.
Local police responded to the scene and, later, the Maine State Police Tactical Team deployed there.
Negotiators attempted to contact him using a bullhorn, letting him know they were there to execute a search warrant and they didn’t intend to harm him, police said. They also told him he was under arrest and they wouldn’t leave until he came out of the home.
That night, police “introduced chemicals” into the home and told Saunders they weren’t shooting at him, but merely trying to “get his attention.”
Saunders apparently began shooting, prompting police to tell him to stop or they “would be forced to use deadly force against him.”
He surrendered the next morning after his basement was intentionally flooded.
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