An investigation by the Maine Office of the Attorney General found that a state trooper was justified when he shot and killed a Hiram man in June.

Attorney General Aaron Frey ruled Friday that the man had pointed a BB gun at the trooper, which looked like a real pistol, and refused to put it down.

The attorney general’s office investigates all police killings in Maine. It has never found a police shooting unjustified.

Trooper Zachary Fancy responded around 4:30 a.m. on June 7 to a report of domestic violence at a house on Aaron Drive, where he heard yelling and saw broken windows, according to the report. Fancy saw Steven Nelson, 39, in a bedroom holding a handgun near a woman who was crying and lying on the bed.

Fancy switched from holding his Taser to his handgun as he backed out of the doorway and ordered Nelson to drop the gun. Nelson, who moved to an adjoining bedroom, refused multiple times before raising the CO2 BB gun with his right hand at Fancy.

While Fancy was not wearing a body camera, audio from his cruiser camera’s microphone showed that during the two-minute and 17-second exchange, Fancy ordered him to put down the gun five times and come out of the room nine times, according to the report.

Fancy told investigators that he felt Nelson posed an imminent threat and there was no way to safely remove the woman from the bedroom. Nelson died from a single gunshot wound after Fancy shot him, handcuffed him and administered first aid.

“All facts and circumstances point to the conclusion that Trooper Fancy acted in self-defense and defense of others when he shot at Mr. Nelson,” Frey wrote in the report.

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