A Wiscasset man was arrested Sunday afternoon after a four-hour search through the woods and into the Back River.

Daniel Colby, 32, was taken into custody on the shore of the Back River late Sunday afternoon after a sheriff ’s deputy attempted to retrieve him from the river, according to a release from Lt. Rand Maker of the Lincoln County Sheriff ’s Office.

Sheriff ’s deputies were notified late Sunday morning that a man was jumping into traffic on Main Road and attempting to enter passing vehicles. Shortly afterward, deputies went to Main Road just after noon Sunday after receiving reports that the same man was acting strangely and possibly needed medical attention.

When the deputy and a Wiscasset police officer located the man in the woods off West Shore Road near Main Road, the man allegedly fled.

Deputies, along with a police dog from the Kennebec County Sheriff ’s office, searched for approximately four hours before a deputy and Westport Island fire officer saw him on the shore of the Back River off West Shore Road, according to Maker.

Deputies from Lincoln and Kennebec counties allegedly ordered Colby to stop but he refused, and swam into the Back River.

Officers attempted to convince the man to swim back to shore, and eventually launched a Westport Island Fire Department boat. Maker wrote that deputies tried several times to assist Colby into the boat, but each time he allegedly refused, also refusing a life preserver and swimming away from the boat.

“The lack of cooperation by this male and tidal current in the area made these attempts difficult at best,” Maker wrote. “After several attempts to gain the cooperation of this male and fear that he would eventually die by exposure or drowning, the Lincoln County deputy made the decision to pepper spray this male several times in hopes that his active resistance to detention would stop.”

Colby did stop attempting to swim away, and deputies dragged him in the water back to the shoreline, where he was handcuffed and taken by Wiscasset ambulance to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, where he was treated, released and taken to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset.

Colby was charged on three active warrants for unpaid fines, cultivating marijuana and refusing to submit to arrest or detention, as well as an additional charge of refusing to submit to arrest or detention stemming from Sunday’s incident.

Colby remained in Two Bridges Regional Jail on Monday, held on a total of $6,290 bail. He was due to be arraigned at 1 p.m. Monday, and is scheduled to appear in Lincoln County District Court on Jan. 28, 2015.

DANIEL COLBY was charged on three active warrants for unpaid fines, cultivating marijuana and refusing to submit to arrest or detention, as well as an additional charge of refusing to submit to arrest or detention stemming from Sunday’s incident.