WATERVILLE — Police took a woman into protective custody early Monday after she led them on a low-speed chase throughout the city with a loaded AR-15 semiautomatic rifle in her vehicle.
Nicole Ferrelli, 42, finally stopped at the end of a dead-end drive on the Colby College campus. Ferrelli was summoned on several charges and taken to the hospital, according to Detective-Sgt. Lincoln Ryder.
He said police received a report at 5:46 a.m. Monday that Ferrelli, of Elm Street, was acting erratically and was armed with both a rifle and a pistol and owns multiple other firearms. Eventually, she left her home, got into a vehicle and started driving, though she does not have a driver’s license, Ryder said.
Police tried to stop her at a safe location but she did not stop, so they followed her at a safe distance, hoping she eventually would, as an officer spoke with her on the phone to try to get her to comply, he said. A crisis negotiator also spoke with her, he said.
She got out of the car when she came to the dead-end drive on the Colby campus and was taken into custody and driven to the hospital, Ryder said.
“Mental health assistance was what she needed, primarily,” he said.
He said she was issued a summons, not arrested, and charged with having a loaded AR-15 in the vehicle, a Class E crime; driving to endanger, also Class E as she was operating in a reckless manner on the road; operating without a license, Class E; refusing to submit to arrest or detention, Class D; and failing to stop for an officer, Class E.
She is scheduled to appear in Waterville District Court at 8:30 a.m. March 21, according to Ryder.
He praised officers for their actions Monday.
“They did a good job in trying to do everything that they could to contain and manage that situation, which was potentially dangerous,” Ryder said.
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