The owner of a home in Hiram where a fatal shooting took place early Saturday morning said the man who fired the shot told her he did it in self-defense.
In an interview with the Portland Press Herald Sunday evening, Susan Carl, 22, said she was a friend of both the shooter and the victim. She declined to identify the two men, saying their names would be released by police.
Shannon Moss, spokesperson for the Maine State Police, said no names will be released until the department’s Major Crimes Unit feels it is appropriate. She said no one has been arrested in connection with the shooting, which took place around 1 a.m., and that further information about what may have led to it is being withheld to protect the investigation’s integrity.
Carl said the gathering at her home started out as a friendly get together, but at some point she heard loud voices and yelling outside where an argument was taking place. She did not know what led to the disagreement but she attempted to “de-escalate” the situation.
“I’m begging them both to stop arguing, neither of them made eye contact with me,” Carl said. “They didn’t listen to me at all, they just kept on going.”
She went back inside the home for a couple of minutes and a short while later she heard a single gunshot and ran outside. She told the Press Herald that she knows the man who fired the shot, and that she spoke with him after the shooting.
“He believed his life was in danger, so he ended up feeling like he had to shoot,” Carl said.
Carl was asked if she knew why he felt his life was in danger.
“I just know that he was in a sticky situation and he felt like he had to protect his life and he did what he had to do to protect it,” Carl said. “He didn’t have to do that, and no one imagined that was going to happen at all, no one wanted that to happen.”
According to a news release, state troopers and deputies from the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department and York County Sheriff’s Department responded to a 911 call at 6 Oak Woods Road in Hiram around 1 a.m. Saturday. Officers discovered a deceased male outside the home and attempted to render aid. At 1:45 a.m., state troopers notified the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit about the shooting. Also responding to the scene were members of the Maine State Police Evidence Response Team. Detectives identified witnesses and persons of interest, spending most of the day at the home.
The Officer of the Chief Medical Examiner is expected to conduct an autopsy on the deceased individual in the coming days, state police said.
Carl agreed to be interviewed because she said she wanted to dispel the notion, raised by a neighbor, that her residence was a party house. She purchased the home about 18 months ago and said her father has helped her fix it up.
“I bought this house a year and a half ago by myself. I am a hard worker,” Carl said. “I worked hard for what I have.”
She said about 15 people attended the gathering at her home.
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