An Augusta police officer on Sunday morning shot and nonfatally injured a man police say was wanted on charges from the Fairfield Police Department.

Sabastian Guptill and other officers visited a house on South Belfast Avenue in Augusta, where they found 27-year-old Robert Farrington, of Augusta.

An altercation followed in which Guptill shot Farrington, who police say was wanted on charges of domestic violence and cruelty to animals.

Guptill was not injured, and Farrington was taken to the hospital, where he is in stable condition.

“Our thoughts are with everyone involved in this heartbreaking incident,” the Augusta Police Department said in a news release Sunday.

Police did not describe what led to the shooting, saying only that “an incident involving deadly force occurred.”

The department called the incident an “armed altercation,” but did not specify whether or not Farrington was armed.

Guptill is on paid administrative leave while the Maine Attorney General’s Office investigates the shooting, as is standard for use of deadly force by police.

In the past three decades, the attorney general has looked into about 150 police shootings and determined that all were justified.

A new independent panel was created this summer to investigate incidents where police use deadly force and make policy recommendations.

 

This story will be updated.

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