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Police received a call Sunday from an Orchard Trails resident in building one reporting what sounded like a gun shot fired outside. Police responded and searched the woods and surrounding area. No injuries were reported.
Captain Josh Ewing stated that police left after the search was complete because they “could not confirm that it was a gunshot, could not find any evidence of a gunshot [and] could not find anybody involved.”
Around 1:40 a.m., police received calls reporting a fight involving 15 to 20 people outside of Orchard Trails building three. A caller told the dispatcher that “one of them has a gun.”
Police found four people remaining, some of them without their shirts on, appearing as if they had been fighting. Two males fled the scene.
An officer chased them into the woods. It is unclear whether a weapon had been present in the fight. One of the males came out of the woods and submitted to police requests. The other individual resisted verbal orders and resisted when an officer tried to physically detain him. At that point, he was tased and handcuffed.
Police have not pressed charges and the names of the individuals involved have not yet been released. Neither of the individuals detained were university students and both were over 21.
Police say alcohol may have been a factor involved in the fight.
An unidentified witness said a friend had told her a pellet gun may have been at the scene, but none of this could be confirmed. Ewing stated that the sources were not necessarily reliable.
According to Jimmy Goodson, Orchard Trails building manager, the community assistant on duty had no knowledge of what went on until much later.
“We’re working alongside the police, facilitating any information that they have,” Goodson said.
Orono police acknowledged the use of a Taser in the incident. Ewing said that Orono police rarely engages this method of detainment, Tasers have been used six times in the past three years.
“They’re looking at it [the Tasering] like a punitive thing,” Ewing said, explaining how some may view the issue. “We Tased a guy that was not complying with orders, who had fled from us from a scene possibly involving a gun and fighting. So he was Tased because he failed to comply with orders so that we could secure him. The Taser then comes in as a tool to gain that compliance so that we can take control of the situation without injuring him. It’s a tool that we can use to control someone with less risk of injury to them and to us.”
Ewing also explained that police would not have Tasered the man if there had not been the question of whether a weapon was involved.
No one was injured in either incident Sunday morning. The matter is still under investigation by Orono Police.
