Police say public is not at risk after man killed in Augusta

Officials are investigating the homicide of a 34-year-old man whose body was found about a 10th of a mile away from this mobile home park on Shovelhead Lane in Augusta. Police tape that had been placed around the mobile home park was removed earlier this week. Ashley Allen/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Police say there is no threat to the public after an Augusta man was killed on Old Belgrade Road this weekend.

Officials Tuesday declined to release information on what happened to Tyler Robinson, 34, whose body was spotted on the roadside by a passing motorist Friday night. First responders and police were unable to revive him.

No suspects have been arrested.

Shannon Moss, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said while the public is not at risk, she could not answer other questions because the details of the case are part of an ongoing investigation.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on Saturday and deemed the manner Robinson’s death a homicide. The agency declined to reveal whether he died from gunshot wounds or some other injury when asked by a reporter Tuesday.

The situation has put some residents on alert.

A man at the 42 Old Belgrade Road home, near where Robinson was found at around 10:09 p.m. Friday, said no one there had seen anything related to what happened to Robinson that night.

A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said she slept through the incident, but her adult daughter was awake with her children and said she heard a loud bang. There had been fireworks in the city earlier that night as part of the welcome ceremony for the Ironman 70.3 race, but she said the noise came after the fireworks had concluded. She did not go outside after hearing the bang.

Shortly thereafter, the woman said numerous police cars came to the residential street, with some police remaining on the scene overnight. She said Saturday police with metal detectors and at least one dog appeared to search up and down the sides of the road.

Officials say the death of an Augusta man discovered Friday night on the side of the road near 42 Old Belgrade Road, seen here Monday, is being investigated as a homicide. Ashley Allen/Kennebec Journal file

A bullet hole could be seen Tuesday in the fence of a home in the area. Police tape initially marked off a small mobile home park on Shovelhead Lane — about a 10th of a mile from where Robinson was found — but it was removed by Monday.

The woman has lived at the Old Belgrade Road site for 47 years, and said the neighborhood has not had anything like Friday’s incident take place in that time. She talked to a detective Saturday who told her there was nothing to worry about. But she said it’s hard not to worry after there is a homicide in your neighborhood.

“It is concerning, especially when I’ve got a 5-year-old grandson here,” she said.

Efforts to reach Robinson’s friends or family members on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Robinson has an extensive criminal record, according to a criminal history check by the State Bureau of Identification.

He pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and illegal possession of a firearm in 2015 after he and another man held a 19-year-old at gunpoint at an Augusta apartment and took jewelry, Adderall and Suboxone, a prescription drug used to treat opiate addiction.

Robinson was ordered to serve two years in prison, with the remainder of the five-year term suspended and two years’ probation.

Other charges on his record include, in 2020, refusing to submit to arrest, violating conditions of release and two counts of theft by unauthorized taking.

Police asked anyone who was driving in the area between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Friday and who might have seen people running in the roadway to call the state police at 207-624-7076.