JEFFERSON — A Cushing man shot and wounded his ex-girlfriend Monday evening before leading police on a car chase, exchanging gunfire with an officer and then killing himself, police said.

Shane Prior, 34, shot the woman in the arm at a home where she was staying on 130 Somerville Road in Jefferson, according to Maine State Police.

The woman, Michelle Creamer, 30, of Cushing, was treated at Lincoln Health-Miles Campus in Damariscotta and released.

The two had been together for more than 10 years and had two children together, but separated within the past month, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Their two children, ages 6 and 10, were outside the Jefferson home at the time of the incident but did not see the shooting and were not injured, McCausland said.

Prior shot Creamer after hiding on the Somerville Road property and calling her on a cellphone, McCausland said. Prior did not reveal he was there and when Creamer left the home, he grabbed her, McCausland said.

“In truth, he was lying in wait there on the property, and grabbed her and forced her down the driveway where the conversation became a confrontation and she was shot in the arm,” McCausland said. “She ran up the driveway and into the home. He remained on the property for some time.”

Creamer called police and they responded around 10 p.m. Prior fled in his truck and troopers followed him, said McCausland. They pursued Prior for a little more than a mile before he stopped on Route 32, McCausland said.

Prior fired a handgun in the direction of the troopers and a trooper returned three to four shots, McCausland said.

Prior then turned the gun on himself and died from “a single, self-inflicted, gunshot wound to the head,” said McCausland shortly after an autopsy of Prior’s body was performed at the State Medical Examiner’s Office Tuesday morning.

Sgt. Jason Madore, the trooper who returned fire, was not injured and was placed on administrative leave with pay as the Maine Attorney General’s Office investigates the shooting. McCausland said placing the trooper on leave is standard procedure in all police-involved shootings in Maine.

Madore is a 12-year veteran of the state police who works for Troop D in Augusta, McCausland said, and he’s a longtime member of the agency’s crisis negotiation team.

Police are investigating the circumstances leading up to the shooting, which authorities characterized as an act of domestic violence. The two had been together since about 2000 before breaking up about four to five weeks ago, police said.

Both Creamer and Prior have Facebook pages indicating they’re single, and they appeared to interact on the social network as recently as last week, when a photo of Creamer was posted on her page. Within the hour, Prior wrote a comment on the photo: “You are as beautiful inside as you are out Michelle.”

The two exchanged cordial comments on another photo Creamer shared that day.

According to Prior’s Facebook page, he was self-employed recently but used to work for a building contractor in Rockport. According to Creamer’s page, she studied mental health and human services at the University of Maine at Augusta and works as a nursing assistant at a long-term care facility in Damariscotta.

Attempts to reach Creamer for comment Tuesday were not successful.

McCausland said Tuesday that police are unaware of Prior having any criminal history, including whether Creamer requested any protection orders against him.

Route 32 in Jefferson was closed overnight as troopers investigated the shooting, but was reopened to traffic by the morning.

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