Police said a man was shot Thursday night when he returned to an Old Port bar after he had been ejected from the establishment and arrested earlier in the evening.
Officers on patrol noticed a scuffle between a man and a security guard outside The Drink Exchange at 43 Wharf St. at about 9:40 p.m. and they intervened to assist the security guard. But after they broke up the altercation, the man who had been ejected from the bar immediately returned and started another disturbance, police said. This time, officers arrested him.
Police took him to the station on Fore Street and he was issued summonses for disorderly conduct, refusal to submit to arrest and violating the conditions of arrest. He was then released with a warning not to return to the bar, which is a short walk from police headquarters.
Shortly before midnight, police were called back to the bar for a report of another fight, in which a firearm had been discharged. The man had returned, and officers found he had been shot.
Police and bystanders immediately rendered medical aid, and he was rushed to Maine Medical Center.
Maj. Robert Martin declined to release the injured man’s age or any other details. He also did not provide details on who had shot the man, and whether that person has been charged.
Martin said he did not know the injured man’s condition, and he did not respond to questions about why the man was not booked at Cumberland County Jail after he was taken into custody.
The jail, the state’s largest, is experiencing another wave of COVID-19 infections, and the sheriff said during a legislative session last week that he has instructed police chiefs in the county to only book arrestees on certain serious charges that involve violence against people, such as domestic assault. Martin did not say whether the COVID protocols explicitly prevented police from booking the man who was shot.
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