Portland police had yet to identify a suspect Thursday in the shooting death of David Anderson and wounding of another man late Tuesday in an apartment on Gilman Street.
Investigators are asking for help from anyone who might recognize the light-skinned man who appears in surveillance camera images taken in the apartment building at 11:06 p.m. Tuesday, minutes before police were notified of the shooting.
“We’re working very hard to identify suspects, but it’s a very long and arduous process,” said police Lt. James Sweatt.
A dozen detectives worked nearly all day Wednesday, some for nearly 24 hours straight, interviewing people and gathering information, Sweatt said. Three crime scene analysts gathered evidence in Apartment 305 at 88 Gilman St., a building owned by Shalom House, a nonprofit based on Gilman Street that serves adults with mental illness.
Most of the detectives returned to the investigation in shifts Thursday after getting some rest, and crime scene analysts resumed searching the apartment, Sweatt said.
Anderson, 36, and another man whom police have yet to identify were shot while visiting a man who lives in Apartment 305. The second shooting victim was treated and released from a hospital and has returned home.
The man who lives in the apartment has been temporarily relocated by police and is staying with a relative in another town, which Sweatt declined to identify.
“We can’t exclude anyone who was there from being a target or a peripheral victim,” Sweatt said.
The state Medical Examiner’s Office completed an autopsy on Anderson on Thursday, said Timothy Feeley, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office. He would not say how many times Anderson was shot, where the bullets struck him, what type of weapon was used or from what distance the gun was fired.
Police have said the man in the surveillance images entered the apartment building even though it is a secure facility. They have also said the shooting was not random.
Sweatt said Thursday that nothing was stolen from the apartment. He would not say whether any of the four people in the apartment at the time of the shooting had argued beforehand or what the motive might have been.
There were no police vehicles outside the building late Thursday afternoon. The building is just off Congress Street, between the Maine Medical Center campus and Hadlock Field.
Anderson, a transient who went by the nickname “Shycago,” had a criminal record dating to 1997, including a felony burglary charge and several minor drug and theft charges. His most recent offenses were mostly drug-related, according to records at the Cumberland County Courthouse.
Anderson was released from jail most recently on Feb. 5 after serving 20 days for a probation violation on a felony charge of cocaine possession. His probation officer filed another request with the court on March 1, asking for Anderson’s probation to be revoked for new violations.
Anyone who saw the shooting or has information about it is asked to call police at 874-8533 or 874-8575.
Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:
Twitter: @scottddolan
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