The Maine attorney general’s office has found that a Maine State Police specialist and a Wilton police officer were justified in using deadly force against a man during a standoff in July 2025.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey cleared Maine State Police Specialist Andrew Hardy and Wilton Officer Cody Henry for using deadly force against Gabriele Wilbur, 34, after the man brandished what appeared to officers as a tactical rifle and a handgun, according to a report from Frey’s office released Friday.
A Franklin County deputy had been called to a Cemetery Road residence on July 11 after Wilbur refused to leave the property, despite a July 1 eviction notice and an attempt by Henry to convince the man to leave the property of his own will.
During that conversation with Henry, which occurred around a week after the eviction notice was issued for the Cemetery Road residence, Wilbur said that he wanted “death by cop” if police arrested him or attempted to serve him paperwork.
Franklin County Deputy Sheriff Constantino Zenteno returned to the property July 11 with 30-day eviction paperwork, the attorney general’s report stated.
When Zenteno arrived at the property, people who had been hired to clean up the property notified him that Wilbur had been yelling at them while they were working.
While responding to the call, Zenteno was informed by Henry that Wilbur may have a BB gun.
Zenteno attempted to serve Wilbur the eviction notice, but the man said from inside his vehicle for the officer to “go away.”
Wilbur also told Zenteno that he was going to “do suicide by cop” and that he believed the officers were not real.
Zenteno then called for backup, and served Wilbur the papers on the windshield of the vehicle after backup deputy Isaac Wacombe arrived at the scene, before leaving the scene.
Shortly after the sheriff’s deputies left the scene, the Franklin County dispatch received a call reporting that Wilbur had been threatening the cleanup crew at the Cemetery Road residence with a gun.
Henry and Zenteno arrived back at the scene at around the same time, along with backup from a number of other officers. Both officers verbally asked Wilbur to leave the vehicle, before using a loud speaker to announce that Wilbur needed to leave his vehicle.
Wilbur then responded that things “were not going to go well for the officers,” asked them to leave him alone and waved a middle finger gesture at officers multiple times.
Wilbur opened a rear door after becoming barricaded by police, and waved a gun, according to the attorney general’s report. Officers shouted “GUN,” and Wilbur closed the door.
While observing the scene, Maine State Police’s Hardy believed that he saw the muzzle of a rifle pointed at him over the front seat. He then fired numerous shots into Wilbur’s vehicle.
Wilbur continued to move around inside the vehicle, and Hardy again believed that Wilbur was attempting to get in position to shoot at him. Hardy, who had been shooting from a hill overlooking the scene, believed that Wilbur knew what direction to aim at based on the earlier volley that was shot into the vehicle.
Hardy then fired shots at the lower side of the passenger door, the attorney general’s report said. He later testified that he believed he needed to use deadly force because of Wilbur’s reported gun threats made toward workers on the property and that he felt Wilbur would shoot at him.
Henry, who had been positioned below the hill that Zenteno and Hardy were located, noted the shots fired from an officer behind him, as well as believing that he saw Wilbur point a gun in the direction that a number of officers, including Hardy, were stationed.
Henry then fired a shot, at around the same time that Hardy had fired his second round of shots into the lower passenger side door, because “he was aware of” Wilbur’s threat of being shot to death by the police.
After Henry’s shot, Wilbur exited the vehicle with three gunshot wounds in his right shoulder. When asked to get on the ground for arrest, Wilbur refused. The Maine State Police deployed a Taser twice to subdue Wilbur.
Wilbur was later indicted by a Franklin County Grand Jury for criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and creating a police standoff.
The criminal threatening charge was dropped at the sentencing, after an investigation found that the two guns in Wilbur’s possession were a CO2 cartridge Walther pistol and a CO2 cartridge gun resembling a tactical rifle. In a later interview with investigators for the attorney general’s office, Wilbur said that he had wanted the police to leave him alone, and admitted to brandishing a “pellet pistol” at the workers at the Cemetery Road property.
Officers Hardy and Henry were found justified in using deadly force because they “reasonably believed that [Wilbur] was posing an imminent threat of bodily injury or death to themselves, the officers in the vicinity, and potentially citizens in the area.”
