NEW GLOUCESTER – A low-intensity, eight-hour standoff with Cumberland County Sheriff’s deputies ended Thursday afternoon when officers used tear gas to flush out two suspects wanted on aggravated assault charges.

Maurice Diggins, 57, and his son, Dillon Diggins, 26, were arrested on one charge each of aggravated assault and creating a standoff, said Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce.
“Both were known to police,” Joyce said.

The situation developed about 8 a.m. when deputies went to the home at 23 Winsaw Road to serve Dillon Diggins with a Windham police warrant on an assault charge.

Maurice Diggins answered the door, but misled police about his son’s whereabouts, Joyce said. At that time it was not clear to the deputies that Maurice Diggins was also the subject of an arrest warrant.
Police, suspecting Dillion Diggins was inside, surrounded the home and waited for a judge to grant a search warrant allowing them to enter the building. Maurice Diggins was also charged with hindering apprehension of a suspect for allegedly lying about his son’s whereabouts.

The situation resolved after 4 p.m., when the tactical squad fired a canister of tear gas into the home, forcing Maurice Diggins and another man who was staying there out of the home. A search yielded Dillon Diggins, who was hiding in the home’s attic.

The third person in the home was not charged with a crime. Joyce said there was never a threat of harm against police, and the men were not barricaded in the home. The tactical team was employed as a safety measure because of Dillon Diggins’ history of violent behavior, he said.