4:45 p.m.
STARKS – Chief Deputy Dale Lancaster of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department on Thursday confirmed the shooting of landowner Kerry Hebert, but would offer no details. He said forensic evidence has been collected from the scene and sent to the state police crime lab in Augusta.
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Lancaster said the investigation could take a few weeks to complete.
“Today we were back at the scene to collect a little more evidence; we’re still evaluating and reviewing statements,” he said late Thursday. “There still are interviews to be completed.”
Lancaster said police have identified the shooter but no one has been charged.
“The reason no one has been charged is because this is a unique case — unique in the fact that’s it’s not clear cut,” Lancaster said. “It was a group of hunters and a homeowner, although this is not a hunting accident. This is more of a dispute between individuals.”
Lancaster said there are different versions of how the incident unfolded and police are investigating every angle.
11:20 a.m.
STARKS — Kerry Hebert, the 57-year-old Starks man who was shot Wednesday afternoon outside his home on Mayhew Road, is undergoing surgery at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.
“He is doing pretty well considering the circumstances and he is going into surgery this morning,” his wife Jenn Hebert said this morning. Police said this morning he was in stable condition.
Kerry Hebert was shot once near his home around 3:30 p.m., police have said.
Jenn Hebert, 45, said that the incident happened at the end of their driveway, which is off a dirt road in a wooded area in Starks. She said her husband was assaulted by two men who were hunting on the Hebert’s property.
She said that her husband had also told a family friend Erin Norton, who was also at the hospital, about the incident.
Kerry Hebert said he went outside to ask the two men on his property not to hunt, Norton said.
According to Hebert, he was told by one of the men that he had hunted on that land for 25 years and started hitting Hebert with his gun in the stomach when the gun went off, she said. The bullet went through Hebert’s side but missed major organs, she said.
According to Norton, Hebert said he stepped back and said, “You shot me,” and the man said, “No I didn’t.”
Norton added that Kerry Hebert said he was unarmed at the time.
“This was an unprovoked, unarmed assault,” she said.
Authorities know who the shooter is and have conducted extensive interviews, but by 10 a.m. no one had been charged, Chief Deputy Dale Lancaster of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department said.
“The reason no one has been charged is because this is a unique case — unique in the fact that’s it’s not clear cut,” Lancaster said. “This is not a hunting accident.
“While there was a dispute between Hebert and one of the individuals in the hunting party, we’re trying to go through a mountain of interviews and we have to wait for some evidence to be processed and to speak with Mr. Hebert to get a clearer picture of what transpired.”
A LifeFlight of Maine helicopter picked Kerry Hebert up at Madison Area Memorial High School and took him to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.
Jenn Hebert said people hunt in the area frequently.
“The issue is not that we are anti-hunting. The issue is that they were too close to our house and weren’t hunting responsibly,” she said.
Jenn Hebert is the town clerk in Starks and she was at a Halloween party at the town office with the couple’s two children Wednesday night when the incident happened. Kerry is on the town planning board and is self-employed.
Maine State Police, the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department and the Maine Warden Service were at the scene after the shooting. The Madison Fire Department, Madison police and Anson/Madison/Starks ambulance service assisted at the high school during the LifeFlight transfer.
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
rohm@mainetoday.com
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