Apr. 15—The Office of the Maine Attorney General has ruled that a Maine State Police trooper was justified when he fatally shot a Limerick man during a tense negotiation in Old Orchard Beach in July.
Attorney General Aaron Frey wrote in a report released Friday that Trooper Ryan Phillips shot in self-defense when he killed 38-year-old Christopher Harriman, who was loading a bullet into his AR-15 rifle.
Harriman “threatened the officers and was openly hostile to them,” Frey wrote in the report. “Trooper Phillips reasonably believed that Mr. Harriman was posing an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death to himself, other officers and bystanders.”
The attorney general’s office investigates all police killings in Maine. It has never found a police shooting unjustified.
Officers received reports around 6:45 p.m. on July 9 that Harriman was armed and making threats to kill himself and others, according to the report. Harriman was spotted in his black Cadillac Escalade leaving the Kennebunk Service Plaza on the northbound side of the Maine Turnpike and driving toward the mobile home park where the 911 caller lived.
Harriman “nearly hit” a trooper’s cruiser before Trooper Sophia Swiatek followed his vehicle to the mobile home park. After driving out of the area, Swiatek saw Harriman stop at an intersection and point his rifle at a Saco police officer who was parked nearby. Swiatek attempted to shoot Harriman, but her rifle malfunctioned, Frey wrote in the report.
Harriman then drove down a dead-end road, and a police pursuit ended.
State police tracked his phone and found him in the parking lot of the Landry’s Shop ‘n Save in Old Orchard Beach, the report states. Phillips parked about 70 feet away from Harriman’s vehicle while four other officers pointed their rifles at him.
Phillips yelled at Harriman to show his hands, according to Frey’s report, and Harriman responded with threats to shoot the officers while also telling them to shoot him. A crisis negotiator arrived at 7:54 p.m., after Harriman had dropped two loaded rifle magazines out of the car window, moved his vehicle at a different angle and briefly showed the officers his AR-15 rifle.
Harriman “ignored” the crisis negotiator’s requests to speak to him and exited the vehicle, according to the report. A few minutes later, Harriman retrieved the AR-15 from the passenger seat, put the muzzle between his legs and racked the rifle, preparing to load a bullet in the chamber. That’s when Phillips fired a single shot at Harriman’s back, Frey wrote.
“Trooper Phillips later told investigators that he shot Mr. Harriman because he feared that Mr. Harriman would turn and start shooting at him, other officers in the area or bystanders who had congregated in the area,” Frey wrote in the report.
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