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January 19

Police report: Man was shot in Vassalboro out of self-defense

By Betty Adams

With a gunshot wound to his stomach, Rafael Encarnacion, 22, crawled out of a back bedroom of a Vassalboro home early Tuesday.

click image to enlarge

SHOOTING: Maine State Police Detective Bryant Jacques leaves the home while investigating the scene where a 22-year-old man was shot early Tuesday morning on Whitehouse Road in Vassalboro.

Staff photo by David Leaming

click image to enlarge

SEARCH: Two detectives walk past an outbuilding and a boat after searching the area outside a home on Whitehouse Road in Vassalboro on Tuesday after a 22-year-old man was shot.

Staff photo by David Leaming

The man identified by police as the trigger-man, Joseph L. Gagnon, 55, of Vassalboro, told his brother that he shot Encarnacion in self-defense with a “homemade gun” because Encarnacion was threatening him and his family, according to a police report filed in Kennebec County Superior Court.

Gagnon, who has yet to be charged in connection with the shooting, turned himself in to Hallowell Police following the shooting, which was reported at 12:30 a.m. at Gagnon’s home on Whitehouse Road.

Gagnon remains in Kennebec County jail on a charge of violating a  condition of bail related to an earlier incident. Encarnacion was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

The police report by Maine State Police Detective Chris Tremblay says Encarnacion had been picked up in Gardiner by Gagnon’s daughter, Jaimie Gagnon, 25. The couple stopped into the elder Gagnon’s Whitehouse Road home to check on Jaimee Laney, 33, Joseph Gagnon’s girlfriend, after seeing several vehicles in the driveway.

Joseph Gagnon was banned from contact with Laney as a result of a domestic  violence charge relating to an Aug. 10, 2011, incident in Augusta where Gagnon allegedly threatened her and rammed the rear of a vehicle she was riding in.

Gagnon was free on bail on charges relating to that incident when the shooting occurred.

According to the Tremblay’s report, James Gagnon, 53, said his brother told him that Encarnacion “was threatening him, his girlfriend and his kids, that the man had beat him in the past, and it wasn’t going to happen again.”

 

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