Portland police on Monday identified Officer Nevin Rand as the policeman who shot and wounded a man during a burglary investigation.
Rand, who has been an officer in Portland since August 2018, shot Edward C. Hyman, 42, of New York City early Saturday while investigating a report of a burglary near the Preble Street Soup Kitchen on Oxford Street. Witnesses identified Hyman as the suspect and Rand was attempting to speak with Hyman when he shot him, police said.
Police have not said what happened during that interaction or whether Hyman had a weapon.
Hyman was being treated at Maine Medical Center for injuries that police said were not life-threatening. A spokesman for Maine Medical Center said he did not have any information available about Hyman.
When Hyman is released, he will be charged with criminal threatening and failure to submit to arrest or detention, police said. He does not have a criminal record in Maine. A Portland police spokesman did not respond to an email Monday night for details about the reported burglary.
No police officers were injured during the incident.
As is standard procedure in police-involved shootings, the Maine Attorney General’s Office will investigate whether the use of force was justified. Rand is on paid administrative leave during the investigation, which also is standard procedure.
Police and the attorney general’s office did not initially release the name of the officer or person who had been shot.
“The Portland Police Department withheld the release of this information while we positively identified Mr. Hyman along with allowing him the time needed to recover so that he could notify his family,” Interim Chief Heath Gorham said in a statement on Monday. “To ensure the integrity of the investigation, no further details will be released at this time. When appropriate, the department will release further information.”
The Portland incident was the second shooting involving a Maine police officer in as many days. A Rumford man died during a confrontation with police in Dixfield on Friday night. Officer Dustin Broughton of the Mexico Police Department shot Matthew A. Marston, 29, but Marston died after shooting himself, the attorney general’s office said.
The Portland Police Department’s website lists two shootings in the past 10 years, both of which were ruled justified by the Maine Attorney General’s Office.
In February 2017, Sgt. Nicholas Goodman fatally shot 22-year-old Chance David Baker, who was carrying a BB gun in the parking lot of a shopping plaza on St. John Street. The shooting was justified, the attorney general’s investigation found, because Goodman believed Baker was carrying a lethal weapon.
Baker’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the department and the pawnshop that sold him the air rifle, and his name became a rallying cry for Black Lives Matter protesters last summer.
In November 2011, Officer Robert Miller shot Jonathan Mitchell, 29, during a vehicle chase that was part of a burglary investigation. Miller shot Mitchell as he was attempting to escape in his car. Mitchell survived, and the attorney general’s office ruled the shooting justified because, under Maine law, officers may use deadly force to make an arrest or prevent a subject’s escape – if they believe the subject has committed, or intends to commit, a crime that endangers human life.
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