Federal Protective Service and FBI agents examine the entrance to the Edmund S. Muskie Federal Building at 40 Western Ave. in Augusta after a shooting Wednesday morning near the doorway. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal file
AUGUSTA — An Augusta man attacked a security officer and held a knife near the officer’s throat Wednesday morning before another guard shot and wounded the assailant at the Edmund S. Muskie Federal Building, according to officials.
The suspect was identified Thursday as Derik Broox Wight, 41, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine
Wight entered the building at about 11:30 a.m. and attacked a security officer contracted with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service, according to U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee.
McElwee said Wight was “at one point holding the knife near the officer’s throat.”
“A second officer shot Wight, who was then arrested and transported to the hospital for treatment of his wound,” McElwee said in a statement released Thursday to the news media.
Wight has been charged with assaulting a federal officer. If convicted of the charge, he could face up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both, followed by up to three years of supervised release.
Wight was taken into custody Wednesday and brought to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta with an abdominal wound, according to the FBI’s Boston office and officers at the scene. A MaineGeneral spokesperson said Thursday that Wight was in fair condition.
The Muskie Federal Building at 40 Western Ave. houses a post office and several federal offices, including the Internal Revenue Service.
The FBI said no one else inside the building was injured and that there was no threat to the public, without providing additional details on Wight’s alleged motive.
The security company employing the armed guards, Paragon Systems Inc., contracts with the Federal Protective Service to scrutinize people who visit the Augusta building.
The FBI was leading the investigation into the alleged assault and the shooting, with assistance from the Federal Protective Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Maine State Police, Augusta Police Department and Office of the Maine Attorney General’s investigations office.
FBI officials declined Wednesday to provide additional information, including the identities of the guards involved.
Local, state and federal police officers and Augusta Rescue responded to the Muskie Federal Building. The main entrance to the facility was blocked with police tape into the afternoon.
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