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A man thanked a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy after the officer fatally wounded him last October during a confrontation on a bridge.
That’s one of the revelations from investigators with the Maine attorney general’s office, which on Friday released their report into the shooting death of 61-year-old Lawrence Scott.
Deputy Jesse Clement set out to perform a welfare check on Scott about 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2024.
A woman called dispatchers to report that Scott, who was prohibited from consuming alcohol under his bail conditions, had left his Wheeler Road home in Phillips “highly intoxicated” and with a BB gun, according to investigators.
She believed he intended to commit “death by cop,” investigators wrote.
While Clement and another deputy, Alan Elmes, were en route to the Wheeler Road home, they learned that a man in dark clothes was waving what appeared to be a gun on the bridge near Salem Road in Phillips. The deputies suspected it was Scott given the proximity to his home.
Clement found Scott on the bridge and told him to put down the gun and that he wanted to get Scott help, investigators wrote.
Scott told the deputy to come closer, but Clement refused until the man put down the gun.
Scott told Clement that the deputy could help by shooting him, according to the report.
When Elmes arrived at the other end of the bridge just before 6 p.m., Scott began walking toward him but Clement redirected his attention and Scott turned and walked toward him.
Scott said that he was going to shoot. Clement told him not to, but Scott said “you better” before pointing the gun at him, investigators wrote.
Clement fired one shot, hitting Scott in the torso.
When the deputy approached the man, Scott told Clement that the gun wasn’t real and then thanked the officer for shooting him, according to the attorney general’s office.
Investigators found that Scott only had a Daisy Powerline 93 CO2 BB gun. Clement told investigators that the caller had reported that Scott may have a BB gun, but he was unsure whether that information was accurate.
The Maine medical examiner’s office found that Scott had a blood alcohol level of 0.17 percent.
Investigators concluded that Clement believed that Scott posed an “imminent threat” to the deputy because Scott didn’t comply with orders to put down the gun and had reportedly said he intended to shoot and then advanced on the deputy.
“Deputy Clement reasonably believed he was acting in defense of himself at the time he used deadly force,” the report reads.
