PORTLAND — Life returned to normal Sunday on Cedar Street, the scene of a dramatic six-hour standoff Saturday between a gunman and the Portland police.

Residents sat on stoops drinking coffee, smoking and reading about the events that unfolded in their midst and led to the arrest of Brian Kelley, 48.

Kelley is accused of shooting an unidentified woman on the street, possibly with a pellet gun. The woman was treated and released from Maine Medical Center.

Kelley remained at the Cumberland County Jail on $100,000 cash bail. He has been charged with elevated aggravated assault and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and faces civil penalties for creating the long and expensive standoff.

Only a few scraps of the police tape used to block off the neighborhood remained Sunday. The tape had cordoned off several blocks around Kelley’s 19 Cedar St. apartment building while police unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with him.

Gone were the police officers posted on rooftops and members of Portland’s Special Reaction Team dressed in camouflage and carrying rifles. There were no signs of the tear gas used to oust Kelley, who fled the building and was arrested at gunpoint at 5:20 p.m.

“It seems like everything is all right,” said Nicole Hampton.

Hampton spent Saturday huddled inside her apartment at 9 Cedar St., waiting for police to allow her boyfriend, Jeremy Putnam, to return home.

Police were releasing no new details Sunday about the shooting or whether a search of the building turned up any more guns.

The woman who was shot does not live in the neighborhood but was a familiar face, said Hampton and other residents.

Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:

bquimby@pressherald.com

 

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