Maine RO Charged With Attempted Murder
BAR HARBOR — A Bar Harbor man has been charged with attempted murder after he allegedly fired a .45-caliber handgun at a vehicle, hitting it four times in a densely populated neighborhood Friday at 9:50 p.m., according to District Attorney Matthew Foster. No one was injured.
Bail for Spencer Stone, 21, has been set at $25,000 cash or surety, Foster said. Stone has no prior criminal record.
Stone’s vehicle was being repossessed not long before he left his residence armed with the handgun. However, Stone did not know his truck was being repossessed, said Foster.
“He thought he was firing into the vehicle of a woman he was having a dispute with,” Foster said. “He was actually firing into the vehicle of the repo guy’s ride/girlfriend. She drove the repo guy to the residence and was then following the repossessed vehicle in her vehicle when she was shot at.”
There were two occupants, the repo guy’s girlfriend and a child, in the vehicle that Stone allegedly fired at.
“An 8-year-old child was sitting behind the driver of the vehicle,” Foster said. “One bullet was found to have penetrated the center rear of the driver’s seat but had slowed enough (after presumably going through the metal body of the car) to not exit the front of the seat where the driver was seated. The bullet was recovered inside the seat. Another bullet hole was found several inches from where the child’s head would have been in the vehicle. I don’t know how the occupants of the vehicle were uninjured.”
The Bar Harbor Police Department is still investigating the shooting.
Initially, Stone was charged with aggravated reckless conduct.
However, that charge requires “‘terroristic intent,’ which is defined in statute and the facts didn’t support that charge,” said Foster. “The charges were changed to attempted murder, Class A (one count for each occupant of the vehicle) and reckless conduct with a firearm, Class C (one count for each occupant of the vehicle). Once we have more information and the rest of the investigative materials, there could be additional or different charges at grand jury.”
“I felt the attempted murder charges were warranted because he fired a .45-caliber handgun, in a densely populated residential neighborhood, four times at a vehicle as it was moving away from him and hitting the vehicle all four times,” Foster said.
Stone was still incarcerated at the Hancock County Jail Tuesday.
