May 23, 2011

State rep charged with pointing gun at 'innocent bystander'

WATERVILLE — A state representative from Garland was arrested this morning for allegedly pointing a handgun at a man at point-blank range in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot.

Republican Frederick Ladd Wintle, 58, faces charges of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and carrying a concealed weapon for pulling a gun on Morning Sentinel photographer Michael Seamans of Sidney, police said.

In what police termed a “bizarre” series of events, Wintle allegedly started talking to Seamans about the infant that died this week at Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter on Ticonic Street and said he was looking for the mother’s drug dealer.

click image to enlarge

Waterville Police Department released this photo of Frederick L. Wintle in custody on Saturday.

Photo courtesy of Waterville Police Dept.

News reports made no mention of drugs involved in the infant's death and did not reveal the identity of the family.

He then pulled a .22-caliber handgun out of his pants’ waistband and pointed it at Seamans in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot, located on Kennedy Memorial Drive, according to police.

Seamans was “an innocent bystander,” said Sgt. Alan Main with the Waterville Police Department. “He certainly did nothing wrong and certainly did his best to try to defuse the potential harm to himself.”

Wintle represents Athens, Charleston, Dexter, Garland, Harmony and Ripley and is on the Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee.

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