HERMON, Maine — A local man who died during an exchange of gunfire with police Sunday night at his home on Buck Lane in Hermon died by his own hand, Brenda Kielty, a special assistant in the Maine attorney general’s office, said Monday.
Michael McKay, 24, died at his home.
“The medical examiner has determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” Kielty said. “Mr. McKay also had a gunshot wound to the leg caused by Trooper [Gregory] Roy.”
Earlier in the day, Kielty had said “there was an armed confrontation” between McKay and law enforcement officers after he “allegedly threatened some people in Kenduskeag and returned to his residence.”
Roy is a member of the tactical team and was placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting, which is the protocol whenever there is an officer-involved death, Kielty said.
He will remain on leave while the AG’s office investigates the shooting death, she said. State police likely will conduct their own investigation, she said.
Maine State Police handled the threatening incident in Kenduskeag, the Hermon standoff, which started about 6 p.m., and the armed confrontation.
A man at a house off Townhouse Road in Kenduskeag called police about 5:45 p.m. Sunday to say McKay was upset and shot his wife’s vehicle three times as he left, state police Lt. Louie Nyitray confirmed Monday.
Nyitray, who was in charge of sending officers to Hermon but was not at the scene himself, said he could not confirm reports that McKay was holding a gun to his head while inside the Kenduskeag residence.
After the Kenduskeag incident, McKay jumped into a vehicle and drove home to his residence on Buck Lane in Hermon, according to Kielty. He was followed by at least 10 law enforcement vehicles, which blocked access to the short dead-end roadway and the adjacent portions of Creamery Road, according to a Bangor Daily News photographer.
Buck Lane is located about a half-mile from Hermon Mountain Ski Area.
Kielty and Nyitray could not say at exactly what time the exchange of gunfire took place.
McKay graduated from Wiscasset High School in 2005, according to his Facebook page. Friends and loved ones started to post messages on the page at about 11 p.m. Sunday expressing their condolences.
“Mike you will be missed beyond words. … My heart is breaking right now and not really sure how to handle it,” one person posted.
“We really need the medical examiner’s manner and cause [of death] before we can say anything,”
I’m not a member of CSI or anything, but my initial diagnosis is gunshot wound.
I am deleting and staying out of this just because the “funny” people are starting to post. How freakin’ sad and abjectly disgusting. Too bad you didn’t have to listen to it while sitting on your front porch, knowing full well what was going to happen given modern law enforcement proclivities. I called the ball on this one minutes before the shooting started, and just wish I’d been completely wrong.
The situation is sad without doubt and the family has without a doubt experienced loss. We may never really know the entire story here, but the quote from Ms. Kielty begs to be ridiculed.
Yes we know you were there you keep posting that you were there and heard the whole thing.
Actually, you were completely wrong. He killed himself. your name is cutthehate, and yet you have sat here today pontificating like some self appointed expert on what went on. Your statement that all of these law enforcement officers showed up there with the hopes of getting some shooting in is as asinine a statement as I have ever read. Do you even know a law enforcement officer? Have you ever talked to one? The LAST thing they want os for this to happen. Yet if this person had hurt someone, you would be the first on here asking where law enforcement was. Do you expect them to just say “Oh well, he shot at a vehicle, lets just leave him be, no big deal” or should they just allow themselves to be put in danger without responding? Cut the hate…….and grow up.
Well said, Scott. Very well said.
Nice post Scott Harriman, couldn’t agree with you more.
So do you advocate cops just letting people run around shooting guns recklessly? Do you think they should just allow this guy to shoot at them without shooting back? What about their families? I’m ticked off when I get home a couple hours late because work was busy. These cops risk NEVER coming home because of this man’s behavior. Cut the Hate. Cops are people too.
Yes, he died during the gunfire, but it’s possible that it wasn’t an officer’s bullet that killed him. The ME may find that it was self-inflicted. The ME may also find that he was on drugs.
These people have to think fast on their feet when talking to reporters, so things may not come out exactly as they mean for them to. Ridiculing them, rather than taking 2 seconds think about what they may mean isn’t funny. Instead, it shows a lack of human compassion and disregard for the life that has ended.
I’d say it shows that it was poor quote that even you have to guess what it means. No comment exists for a reason.
Yes, it does. So does staying quiet about what others say and do. If you think you can do a better job, and make better quotes than this person, then please apply for his job.
Thumper said it best- If you can’t say nuttin’ nice, don’t say nuttin’ at all.
Perhaps if more people adhered to that advice, things would run smoother.
According to WABI the ME said he shot himself in the head.
It makes you wonder, what could have gone so wrong for him to end up in the situation that he did ever, let alone at age 24. It certainly was not the case of a bad decision, but more likely a string of bad decisions.
And probably a slight touch of mental issues/anger problems
I say lead poisoning.
24, how sad. Will never know a full life……
so what is the LE goal in these situations? Oh, yeah, let’s kill him before he can hurt….himself. Another successful deployment tactical team. All that’s left is the beers to celebrate and the AG opinion calling it “justified”. Just like always.
Bad shoot, unless there was a hostage. Wait them out. usually they either shoot themselves or tire out and surrender.
Reading comprehension? An “exchange of gunfire” implies he was also shooting at the police. It’s not as if the cops just decided to shoot him for kicks.
The report of an “exchange of gunfire” comes from just one side, the police. Perhaps you can COMPREHEND why that self-serving comment may be disregarded. Or don’t you recall Obama and company telling the world that OBL and the SEALs had a 40 minute “gunfight” before it was revealed that noone fired a shot except the assault team?
Actually, it came from the Attorney General’s Office as well, which is the impartial investigator….go find another conspiracy theory….
And where did the AG get that information do you suppose? And why are they releasing it immediately as fact when there has been no investigative finding as yet? Publicizing one sides position as fact the day after an event is hardly “independent” investigation is it.
See below for your “independent” investigators and the answers to my rhetorical questions.
Sometimes it’s pretty darn obvious where a bullet came from or didn’t come from. In a case like this where it’s very clear what happened, would you rather that they pretend they didn’t know until the bureaucratic investigative process is eventually complete? How about in a rollover car accident where the speeding driver who was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown clear at 80mph, should the investigators also pretend they aren’t pretty sure of the reason for death? You clearly have a strong bias against police or authority figures and are trying to make a very big deal out of nothing.
Personal attacks based on ignorance of the subject criticized are hardly a rebuttal. If you actually knew me, you’s realize how completely wrong your prejudice is. But debate is really for the intellect; while name calling is for ….well….people like you.
Well if you think your comments have anything in common with an intellectual debate….in fact this last one resembles a personal attack on me. Of course I realize that someone of your “intellect” would never stoop to such a thing! LOL
I really hope you aren’t saying that you think the credibility of an honest policeman with no history of ever telling a lie is in any way similar to the credibility of a professional liar such as Obama!
or they sneak out the back door.
Maine
is unique in that it has an independent body to investigate
police-involved shootings. In most states, he said, the police
departments investigate their own.
“I’ve
worked in a lot of police departments around the country and Maine is
the only state I know where there’s an independent state-level
investigator mandated by law,” he said, referring to the Maine
Attorney General’s Office. “I think it’s a great system.”
The
nonprofit group that tracks police deaths also reported that 68
federal, state and local officers were killed by gunfire in 2011, a
15 percent jump from last year when 59 were killed. It marks the
first time in 14 years that firearms fatalities were higher than
traffic-related deaths. The data shows that 64 officers died in
traffic accidents, down from the 71 killed in 2010.
By
GREG BLUESTEIN Associated Press , The Associated Press –
Just curious – Someone’s shooting at you – to kill you – how long do you wait before you defend yourself?
“independent body to investigate”, that’s funny.
I guess you are unaware that both the AG and the MSP are both departments of the State of Maine. Or that it is the AG that must defend MSP against all claims of use of excessive force, including shootings, in civil actions. Or that a finding that a shooting was “unjustified” by that same AG would be adversely determinative of a civil action brought in any particular case.
Independent, good one!
P.S. The Academy responsible for training these officers, and who would be criticized,if not sued, if a shooting was found flawed, is run by a Board of Trustees. The Chair? Brian MacMaster, Chief Criminal investigator of the AG’s office (sitting for the AG himself, ex officio.) It’s is MacMaster that supervises the AG investigation into all shootings and has a hand in writing the final report. Independent you think?
Understand that my problem with the system is the lack of independent review. The present system has no credibility. It is akin to the former system of Psych Eval of defendants by the Forensic Unit at AMHI. Although many many evals were done in the decades that AMHI had statutory jurisdiction over all of them, not one person was ever found by the unit to be mentally incompetent during its tenure. Finally, after declaring that the deranged nun killer in Waterville was indeed sane, and the Court’s findings to the contrary, the unit was stripped of its jurisdiction. Evals are now done by a panel of private sector psychiatrists that have discovered the obvious; there are indeed a few mentally incompetent criminals in this State. There are also bad shootings but the AG has not seen one in the more than two decades it has been doing the investigations.
We need a transparent, non-political independent review panel for all force complaints, not just shootings. What we have isn’t that.
No. I knew that.
DHHS, DOT, Mainecare and and Welfare are all “departments of the State of Maine” as well. So what? That’s like saying that Republicans and just like democrats because they are all politicians.
Did you even read the article? He was threatening other people and obviously had a firearm. The goal is to stop him before he kills someone else. He obviously had no problem with pulling the trigger.
A local man is apparently shot by police after a stand off and this is the best the Bangor Daily News can do as far as reporting the story? There was a point in time when the editors of the Bangor Daily News would have been embarrassed to publish a story as devoid of facts as this one. This type of reporting might be acceptable for the local Junior High School Paper that comes out monthly, but if this is what Rick Warren is paying reporters to produce he is getting screwed as are the readers of the BDN.
There was a point in time when government agencies were willing to give the press a lot more information.
I think you hit the nail right on the head when you said there was a point in time when government agencies were willing to GIVE the press a lot more information. And that is exactly what happened here apparently. The NEWS reporter was content to go with what the government agency gave her rather then doing the job a reporter is supposed to do. There was a point in time when reporters went out and dug for information, cultivated sources and put some work into their craft. Now they sit at a desk and take whatever the law enforcement PR person gives them. This type of “reporting” might be okay for the social pages when telling about a meeting of the local Cub Scout Troop, but when a member of the community is shot dead by police we should expect better reporting then what Ms Ricker has provided.
Exactly…The liberal press only exists to promote their agenda..No time for REAL reporting….
LOL people like you are incredibly sad inside.
Well what would you suggest they do make something up? Speculate? Interview the dead guy?
Because they don’t report anything except the press release from the State. Not a single neighbor or relative or even an officer was actually interviewed. And papers wonder why no one buys them any more.
We need o read the whole story. But if he shot at the police & they shot back, he instigated it then & lost. He could have killed a police officer, from what the story is inferring. better him than them- he chose to use his firearm, they had to protect themselves.
I tend to agree with you. There is a lot missing from this story but we do know that he had already shot at one vehicle and the police followed him home where it then became a stand off with what they know to be an armed man. What the story does say is that there was an “exchange of gunfire” I’m pretty sure that means bullets were going in both directions. I wonder how many of these Monday morning quarterbacks would have just sit there and let the suspect shoot at them without shooting back?
When the “Tactical” team shows up its just a matter of time before the shooting starts. When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. And yes the story is short on facts and it is too bad our government (something about by and for the people) feels they have to be secretive about their actions it is just plain wrong. I get they have a difficult job but they do not have the right to kill citizens and then not talk about it!!!!
Which is just what is happening, the Bangor Daily News reporters cannot complete the investigation for the AG’s Office. It takes a little longer than 15 minutes to do an investigation of this sorts. You will get the answers.
Yes its big-government’s fault that they are actually going to investigate the shooting before telling everyone what happened. Curse them. That darned Obamacare!
do you realize how often the “tactical” team gets called out in a year?
a lot.
we just never hear about it.
Thank you Trooper Roy and all of the other Law Enforcement Officials who put themselves in harms way to keep everyone safe and to try to resolve this matter peacefully. May God Bless you all.
More information released…
This man was clearly unstable. Its very sad it had to end like this! However it is nobodies fault but his own. Im sure if you were faced with the same situation as this officer was, the results would be the same!
So maybe they should have just let him go shoot someone else instead — maybe two or three other people. I’m sure that’s a much better solution.
“shoot someone else”? “Two or three others”? You realize you’re making this stuff up, right?
Who did he shoot other than himself and his wife’s car? Was anyone else in the house with him (no)? Or in the car (no)? Clearly he was acting out emotionally and not with any apparent intent to harm another. And what was the “exchange” of gunfire? No facts offered to support that claim at all. Did he fire his weapon at anyone except himself and the Tac team heard that one shoot as an “exchange”?
The much better solution would be to let a man upset by his wife’s newly discovered infidelity calm down and then talk to him until any threat is dissipated. That is an option that LE doesn’t seem to consider in these cases. Time is always on their side absent a hostage. But then, they did avoided the overtime costs that might have created if they had had some patience.
So…by default you are saying to let him go and possibly kill others….nice….
He was shot in the leg by the police….hardly “shooting a man to death.” The man unfortunately killed himself.
Sad affair all around, a family lost a loved one and the officer has a memory of taking a life which, I am sure no officer wants to do but sometimes they have to do as trained. It’s easy to complain about the law but put yourself in their shoes before running off at the mouth.
technically the officer didn’t take the man’s life.
the officer shot the guy in the leg, and then the guy shot himself.
If you read the article, you will find that he had already shot at a vehicle in Kenduskeag.
(So was already attempting to use deadly force to someone else.)
He was shot “during an exchange of gunfire”
Its not like that officer woke up that morning and had intentions of killing someone. That is an officers worst nightmare.
That would be like saying it should have been the officer that was shot and killed, when all he was doing was his job!
Not that death is the answer of choice, but when given a situation where he had shot at a vehicle then exchanging fire with officers, it only makes sense that the “problem” in the situation, is the one to go!
What is going on with our young peoples minds ? This is not a sensible way to iron out difficulties or to position yourself for distress. There are many other avenues available. This is an very sad occurrence and should of been, avoided.
Its very sad that such a young life was lost. That being said, would all of you people who are ridiculing the police feel better if this violent, unstable man had killed his family? Get real. Our law enforcement isnt out shooting people for the hell of it! Im sure it was justified!
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He off ed himself bullet to the head now you can apologize
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Oh wow I didn’t know that. You must attend a lot of police shootings!
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No justification involved he got one in the leg like you tv watchers want then shot himself in the hat yep that’s an apology needed
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Why would anyone say he was justified or not justified to shoot himself in the head?
OK, I’m going to say it……if the deceased didn’t go to the Kenduskeag house with a firearm, he’d be out on bail with a court-order to stay away from the woman. Enter the firearm, the stakes go up automatically, for all parties.
Don’t know if it was a pistol or a hunting rifle, but I don’t see handguns saving a lot of lives in Hermon lately.
Thankfully, a lot of lives don’t need saving in this area, at least compared with most areas of the country. Just what would you expect to see a handgun saving a lot of lives look like? We have a very high per capita gun ownership rate in Maine, and a very low violent crime rate and I doubt that’s just a lucky coincidence. Maybe that statistic is what handguns saving lives looks like? The bad guys know Mainers are likely to be armed or at least have a gun in the house, so many of them think twice before accosting someone. That perception by potential violent criminals benefits us all. :)
Read before you bash the law he took off for the next world by his choice
I am sorry this officer had to have his life put on the line for this foolishness………………wish the victim had sought help for his issues……………
No winners. The police were doing their job; which appears to be getting more difficult by the day. Hopefully we will encourage those who are attempting to protect and serve us to the best of their ability. They need our appreciation instead of our criticism. I don’t believe any of them sleeps well after a death takes place during a standoff.
Good thing this happened during the summer, and not the winter, when lots of people would have been at Hermon Mountain. Too bad it happened at any time though….
where he didn’t actually injure anyone when he shot the car i find it kind of ridiculous to start shooting at him. the whole thing was blown way out of proportion and excessive police force was not needed. but hey, a stand off makes for a better news story and that’s what it’s all about. of course if someone’s shooting at you you’re going to shoot back. it doesn’t say who made the first shot once he was at his home. 10+ cop cars is overkill for one single man.
this should have been handled a lot differently with less brutality and force and maybe then the man would still be alive. he clearly needed help and driving someone to kill themselves isn’t exactly “help”, merely a quick fix. i’m also not so sure that they’re telling the truth about the cause of death either. police have way too much power and they certainly like to abuse it.
I asked what kind of car it was and my comment got deleted..
Leads me to believe a general motors
Everyone can stop saying terrible things on here already. Mike was a great guy and very well-liked and unfortunately there were a lot of things that happened that led to this…All of you people out there that are judging him, back off. You don’t even know him. It is very sad and Mike will be missed by many back home in Wiscasset.
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My prayers go out to all involved and to the officer that shot him in the leg, Thank You. You did your job well and i only wish more officers would try to hit em in the leg first and then see if they can get things calmed down. Obviously this person was so distraught that didnt happen this time but one has to wonder if maybe the Vet down in OOB or some of the other shootings might have had better outcomes if that stratgey had been used.
Nok-Noi Ricker, Facebook reporter!