LEE, Maine – Authorities are trying to determine the motive of the ex-convict they say shot five people, two of them fatally, during a rampage across northern Maine.
Anthony Lord was arrested at his uncle's home in Houlton on Friday and faces murder and kidnapping charges, State Police Lt. Sean Hashey said. A woman who was being held with him was safe, he said.
Investigators said Lord knew some of the victims, but authorities gave no information about possible relationships. Officers, detectives and evidence technicians will work through the weekend to piece the case together, Hashey said.
"We know a lot, but there's a lot of questions to be answered still," he said.
The shootings left 58-year-old Kevin Tozier and 22-year-old Kyle Hewitt dead. Two other men and one woman were treated for gunshot wounds and were expected to survive, police said.
The outburst of violence started Thursday night with a fire at a barn in Benedicta and then escalated early Friday when a man was robbed of his guns and pickup truck in Silver Ridge.
Before his arrest, Lord shot people in Benedicta and Lee, police said.
Lord was being questioned late Friday. His initial court appearance is expected early next week.
Lord, 35, has a criminal record that includes convictions for domestic assault, criminal threatening and assault, police said. He was placed on the state's sex-offender registry after being convicted of unlawful sexual contact with someone under the age of 14.
State police also are investigating the death of his 6-month-old son, who was discovered unresponsive by his mother in Millinocket in May.
Police said the first shootings happened at the home of Lord's brother, where windows and the doors were shot out but no one was injured.
From there, Lord returned to the site of the barn fire and the home where 22-year-old Brittany Irish lived to get her, Hashey said. There, he shot Hewitt, who was Irish's boyfriend, and her 55-year-old mother, Kim Irish, police said.
Carlton Eddy was shot through the window of his truck in the home's driveway, police said. Tozier and 54-year-old Clayton McCarthy were shot at a woodlot in Lee where a logging truck was stolen after Lord ditched the pickup, they said.
Police said Lord and Irish knew each other.
Several Benedicta residents said they couldn't remember the last time the town of 400 people in Maine's northernmost county had seen such violence.
"Nothing like this happens here," said Patrick Knowles, a 21-year-old who grew up in in Benedicta and now lives in Portland.
Knowles said Hewitt moved to the area and entered his class at the local high school his junior year. Hewitt was a nice guy who was just trying to fit in, Knowles said.
"He just wasn't from the area and he didn't know anyone, so it wasn't easy for him," said Knowles, who was sitting at a bar just down the road from where Hewitt was shot.
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