Gorham Police Chief Dan Jones is the officer who exchanged gunfire Wednesday with a suspect who was later apprehended.

The department said Thursday that Jones has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, which is standard whenever deadly force is used by a police officer.

No one was injured in the incident, which shut down a portion of Route 202 in Gorham around 11:30 a.m., police said. Gorham officers were called to assist Saco police, who were trying to apprehend 25-year-old Aaron Bouchard after an alleged incident of domestic violence.

Bouchard was said to be armed and suicidal.

Bouchard faces charges of attempted murder, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and terrorizing. He is expected to make his initial appearance in Cumberland County Unified Court on Friday.

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office will conduct an internal affairs investigation at the request of the police department, because the police chief was involved.

While the preliminary investigation by the Attorney General’s Office is underway, Gorham Deputy Chief Christopher Sanborn will be in charge, the department said in a statement Thursday.

The confrontation began when Gorham officers found Bouchard’s vehicle at the entrance to a recently cleared lot in the woods and began communicating with him via text message, Sanborn said in the statement.

Bouchard refused to come out of the woods and police set up a perimeter, Sanborn said.

“After a period of communication, Mr. Bouchard came out into the open lot and fired in the direction of the officers. A Gorham police officer returned fire and Mr. Bouchard retreated into the woods,” Sanborn said in the statement.

Police were about 100 yards away when Bouchard fired his weapon three or four times.

Bouchard was eventually located by Gorham police and members of the Cumberland County Emergency Services Unit and taken into custody without incident. He was transported to the Cumberland County Jail in Portland.

A jail intake worker said that Bouchard was being held without bail.

Matt Byrne can be contacted at:

mbyrne@pressherald.com