A 59-year-old Hiram man was shot and killed by Maine State Police at his home Saturday morning during an armed confrontation that followed a 12-hour standoff.

It was the third fatal officer-involved shooting in Maine this year and the second this month.

Col. John Cote, chief of the state police, said Reed Rickabaugh was shot and killed by two state troopers after a standoff that lasted from 11 p.m. Friday to 10:45 a.m. Saturday.

The Maine State Police Crisis Negotiation and Tactical teams were at Rickabaugh’s property on Tripptown Road throughout the night, Cote said during a press conference Saturday afternoon at the Hiram Fire Department.

Rickabaugh fired repeatedly at the officers as they tried to contact him inside the home, Cote said.

“Mr. Rickabaugh shot at officers multiple times from inside his residence, twice striking vehicles that were occupied by police officers,” Cote said. “Multiple attempts to persuade Mr. Rickabaugh to leave his residence were unsuccessful.”

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Cote said at about 10:45 a.m. Saturday, Rickabaugh came out of his residence and an armed confrontation occurred, resulting in Rickabaugh being shot and killed by two members of the State Police Tactical Team, Cpls. G.J. Neagle and Paul Casey.

No police officers were injured during the standoff and armed confrontation, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

The incident will be investigated by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings. Neagle and Casey have been placed on administrative leave, Cote said.

Cote said he didn’t know how many rounds of gunfire were exchanged Saturday morning, nor what might have motivated Rickabaugh’s actions.

“There’s nothing I would want to speculate on at this point,” he said.

Cote said the incident actually began Thursday night, when an Oxford County deputy sheriff investigated a report that shots had been fired from Rickabaugh’s residence and a bullet had hit a neighbor’s house. At that time, Rickabaugh spoke to the deputy sheriff through a closed door.

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On Friday night, two deputy sheriffs returned to the Rickabaugh residence to continue the investigation.

“Mr. Rickabaugh answered the door armed with a handgun,” Cote said.

The deputies took cover and ordered him to drop the gun.

“Mr. Rickabaugh shot at the deputies, striking their vehicle and went back inside his residence,” Cote said.

Roads around the scene were shut down. A photo of the area from News Center Maine showed well over a dozen police cruisers parked along Tripptown Road.

A criminal background check through the Maine State Bureau of Identification found only that Rickabaugh was convicted of drunken driving in 2013.

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However, the record notes – without saying why – that Rickabaugh was “firearms disqualified.” That means a person is banned from owning or using firearms, McCausland said.

The other fatal officer-involved shootings in Maine this year occurred in Penobscot and Androscoggin counties.

On April 14, a burglary and car theft investigation led to a nearly nine-hour standoff in Old Town that ended when police shot and killed 31-year-old Thomas A. Powell III. Trooper Garret Booth and Detective Scott Duff of the State Police Tactical Team were placed on paid leave.

On Feb. 2, Jason Gora, 44, of Auburn, was shot and killed in Minot after he crashed his SUV into a police cruiser during a chase and engaged police officers in an armed confrontation.

Three officers from the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department and one officer from the Mechanic Falls Police Department were placed on paid leave.

Both earlier shootings remain under investigation by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, McCausland said.

Rickabaugh was the son of Leone Rickabaugh and the late Maj. Reed K. Rickabaugh Sr., a 20-year veteran Air Force pilot who raised his namesake and two other children in New Jersey before moving to Harrison in 1987, according to the elder Rickabaugh’s 2015 obituary.

Rickabaugh Jr.’s younger brother, Richard, died March 24 in Atlanta, Florida, following a period of declining health, according to the brother’s obituary.

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