43-year-old Perrin Oliver of Bangor, Maine began firing shots from his downtown apartment at 8:30 AM in a standoff with police that lasted 4 hours. Usually the Bangor parade, the largest in Maine with 30,000 spectators and 1,000 participants, ends on Park Street, where Oliver lives. It had to be rerouted—which may have also been to blame for a traffic accident that killed a man driving a green tractor.
Oliver fired close to 40 rounds of ammunition in the exchange, writes Boston.com, resulting in the entire area being shut down and residents evacuated or confined to their houses. Only when police fired tear gas into his apartment were they able to safely arrest Oliver, who was “despondent.”
Oliver’s motive is unclear at this time, but a handgun was confiscated, and he was charged with criminal threatening, as well as aggravated reckless conduct with a firearm, according to CNN.com. Only shortly after the incident, a green tractor, turning right at the new end of the parade, was struck from behind by an antique fire truck in what police called “a freak accident.” The tractor driver died instantly.
Pictured below is the Fourth of July fireworks show in Bangor.