Police charged a local man Friday with attempting to kill his girlfriend during a fight late Thursday night in their apartment on Ninth Street In Auburn, Maine.
The 47-year-old woman told police she and her boyfriend, 42-year-old Germaine Page, had a physical altercation at 43 Ninth St. and that Page pointed a gun at her and fired a shot, missing her. She was able to flee the apartment through a window, according to police.
Although she was not seriously injured, she was evaluated by Fire Department crews and taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston for further evaluation, police said.
Page fled on foot into woods behind the building and was found early Friday morning hiding in a third-floor closet at 51 Ninth St, police said.
He was charged with attempted murder, a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison, and domestic violence criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He was also charged with misdemeanors, including domestic violence assault, domestic violence terrorizing and discharging a firearm near a dwelling, according to court documents.
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Page’s initial court appearance Friday was continued to Monday and he remained at the Androscoggin County Jail.
Police were called to the area shortly before 10:30 p.m. Thursday for a report of a domestic disturbance, according to a police affidavit. It said the woman told police that when she returned home Thursday night, Page had thrown her to the living room floor and stepped on her chest to hold her down. He appeared to be trying to load his gun and was telling her she was going to “die tonight.” She was able to kick him in the groin and get to her feet before being pushed onto the couch.
“He then pointed the gun toward her head and pulled the trigger,” firing one bullet, according to Detective Nicholas Gagnon’s affidavit. Gangnon wrote that she told police Page began to focus on the gun again as if it had jammed. She seized that moment to flee and climb out of a window in a back room of the apartment.
Gagnon wrote that he found a broken fingernail in the living room where the struggle apparently happened and located a spent shell casing for a .380-caliber gun on the living room floor under a dog’s bed. He found what appeared to be a bullet hole in the living room wall behind the couch and noticed torn fabric on the couch that appeared to have been damage from a bullet striking it before hitting the wall.
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His statement said he reconstructed the trajectory of the bullet and was able to determine roughly where the gun would have been when the bullet was fired. The angle and trajectory were consistent with the account told to police by the victim, and Gagnon recovered the bullet from the wall.
Neighbors told police that Page had said he had planned to “smoke” the victim and himself when she arrived home. They said they had “begged Page not to do that and just leave. But, within seconds of the woman’s return, the neighbors heard “blood curdling screams” then a gunshot, Gagnon wrote.
The detective’s account said the woman ran to a neighbor’s porch and begged for help, saying Page had just shot at her. Police officers and detectives were unable to locate Page in the area, but shortly after police cleared the scene they received a call from a neighbor about 2:40 a.m. reporting Page was hiding at 51 Ninth St. Police surrounded the building and entered, finding Page hiding in a closet on the third floor. He was taken into custody without incident.
According to the affidavit, Page denied having a gun, but later told police he had thrown it “quickly and far” off a bridge into the Androscoggin River near Dunkin’ in New Auburn. He told police he had learned the woman cheated on him while she was in North Carolina recently visiting her daughter. Page said when he confronted her, she got mad and jumped on him. He withdrew the gun because he was contemplating suicide and the gun had fired.
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