Mexico and Rumford police officers cleared after shooting man in August

Two western Maine police officers have been cleared of wrongdoing by the Maine attorney general’s office after they shot a man in Mexico last August.

Mexico police Lt. Derek MacDonald and Rumford police officer Bradlee Gallant both shot at Brandon Dearborn on Aug. 31, 2022, in an apartment complex in Mexico after several residents called police about a man who was walking around and pointing a gun at people, according to the attorney general’s report.

While the report does not specify which officer’s bullets hit Dearborn, the report says Dearborn was injured and that both officers fired multiple times at him. Dearborn survived.

Dearborn’s shooting was the second in a string of three police shootings to grip the small mill town and police department. In October 2021, Mexico police officer Dustin Broughton shot Matthew Marston in Dixfield. Then, in October 2022, a little more than a month after Dearborn’s shooting, Broughton shot and injured Daniel Tibbetts outside his apartment. Both of Broughton’s shootings are still under investigation by the attorney general’s office.

After MacDonald and Gallant shot Dearborn last August, the man was charged with reckless conduct with a firearm, receiving stolen property, and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person after he allegedly stole a handgun from a house close to Sun Valley Circle and pointed it at multiple people, according to court records filed in Oxford County Superior Court.

He was also charged in federal court with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

As part of an investigation into the three shootings, the Bangor Daily News obtained body-worn camera footage from Dearborn’s shooting.

The footage from Gallant’s camera shows how the officer pointed a handgun and a stun gun at Dearborn and repeatedly told him to drop the gun.

“Shoot me dead. Shoot me,” Dearborn responded.

Gallant fired the stun gun, then seconds later began firing his gun, as did MacDonald.

According to the attorney general’s report, Gallant and MacDonald were both justified in their use of deadly force as they reasonably believed Dearborn, who was armed with a gun, posed a threat to another officer and residents of the apartment complex.