The Ellsworth police officer who shot a man during an attempted arrest last December acted in self-defense.
That’s the conclusion of investigators with the Maine attorney general’s office, which released their report on the Dec. 22, 2023, shooting of Jeffrey Payne.
Detective Andrew Weatherbee was called to a Water Street apartment complex about 9:22 p.m. after a woman reported her neighbor, Payne, was harassing her, according to the report.
Based on information suggesting that “Mr. Payne was reportedly a sovereign citizen, carried firearms, had acted in an aggressive manner in a prior interaction with another officer, and had an outstanding warrant for his arrest for failure to stop for a law enforcement officer,” Weatherbee called for backup.
Two officers responded, Officer Joshua Steward and Sgt. David Lord.
When they arrived, the three officers made a plan to end the harassment and arrest Payne on the outstanding warrant.
The report noted that none of the officers was wearing a body camera. A proposal included within the Ellsworth city budget would allocate funds to equip officers with body cameras.
They went to Payne’s third-floor apartment and knocked. When they heard movement inside, Weatherbee knocked again. This time Payne opened the door, and the officers could see he was armed with a silver revolver, the investigators wrote.
When Steward ordered him to put away the revolver, Payne tried to close the door, but Steward put his foot in the way and Lord kicked the door to keep it open, according to the report.
Payne’s revolver went off, hitting the wall behind the officers. Payne later denied intentionally firing the gun, but said the revolver went off accidentally when the door hit him. The attorney general’s office dismissed that defense, saying it “does not impact” how the officers “perceived” the shot.
Steward then fired four shots into the wall adjacent to the door, one of which struck Payne in the upper arm.
Payne then emerged from the apartment unarmed, but investigators wrote that he “refused to comply” with the officers even after being warned they would use a stun gun on him. When he continued to not comply, Weatherbee used a stun gun on Payne.
Once the officers realized Payne was wounded, Steward administered first aid and Payne was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
A subsequent search of his apartment turned up several firearms and boxes of ammunition.
Payne has been charged with attempted murder, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and reckless conduct with a firearm.
Investigators concluded that Steward believed Payne posed an “imminent threat” to himself and the other officers given Payne’s history, noncompliance and the gunshot.
“All the facts and circumstances point to the conclusion that Officer Steward reasonably believed he was acting in self-defense of himself and other officers at the time he used deadly force,” they wrote.
