Dreaquan Foster, the Rhode Island man who was shot in the chest after allegedly forcing his way into a Sidney home March 12, has been released from the hospital and arrested on a charge of elevated aggravated assault.

Foster, 21, was taken to the Kennebec County jail Wednesday afternoon. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 cash bail, according to a jail employee.

Dreaquan Foster

According to Maine’s criminal code, elevated aggravated assault is a class A crime punishable by up to 30 years of incarceration and a $50,000 fine.

Late last week, Foster was still under 24-hour guard in the intensive care unit at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta.

Police said last week that Foster forced his way into the Lyons Road home of 84-year-old Audrey Hewett on March 12. Hewett took cover in her bedroom and called her son, Eric Hewett, 47, who lives next door.

During an interview with the Kennebec Journal last week, Eric Hewett said he ran into his mother’s home and Foster struck him in the head with a hammer, knocking him to the ground.

Eric Hewett then managed to fire one shot at Foster with his semiautomatic handgun.

“He was coming at me again with (the hammer), and that’s when I managed to get the gun pointed up at him and I fired at him,” Eric Hewett said.

“I didn’t know if I hit him or not, but evidently I did, because his interest became immediately the firearm at that point. He dropped the hammer, or I assume he dropped it. All of a sudden there was a fight for the gun.”

After wrestling with Foster, Eric Hewett said he managed to hold the man at gunpoint until police arrived. Eric Hewett, who suffered a concussion, a skull fracture and other injuries, was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland and released several days later. His mother was not injured.

Foster, who is from Providence, Rhode Island, was taken to MaineGeneral Medical Center.

Charles Eichacker can be contacted at 621-5642 or at:

ceichacker@centralmaine.com;