The suspect in the killings of four people in a Maine home on Monday tearfully asked for forgiveness in a Facebook video a day earlier.
It has since been revealed that he was legally banned from owning a gun in the state, having been released from prison four days earlier.
The Maine shootings began in the small town of Bowdoin, where four people were killed on Tuesday.
A chaotic scene then developed, with vehicles being shot at on a motorway over 20 miles away in the parish of Yarmouth, police said. Three people were shot dead there, one remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
The shooter, identified as Joseph Eaton, 34, of Bowdoin, was charged with four counts of murder but was not immediately charged with the freeway shootings. In the chilling video, Eaton asks people to “try to forgive him” and reveals he is suffering from trauma after being molested.
“Being harassed and such. It destroys someone. I know that I am good for my children. I just wish people would forgive me, you know, some people. I don’t understand,” Eaton said. He does not say from whom he asks forgiveness.
Joseph Eaton was released from prison last Friday after serving eight months for assault
Eaton posted this photo on the day he was released from prison, accompanied by the caption, “Real Food.”
Eaton wears handcuffs while in police custody. Shortly after this picture was taken, he was taken from the scene in a police cruiser
Eaton criticizes unnamed people for “claiming to be Christians” but not being able “to forgive anyone or understand what they’re going through.”
“You can’t give anyone a second chance, but you say you’re a Christian. How does that make sense? Why can’t you just try to take it easy, try to get to know the person. What’s the use of hating someone? It destroys you,” he adds.
“Life as a whole is suffering. You work forever, you get sick, people you love die, and you’re guaranteed to have “bad days.” You die and lose everything you have fought for in your life. There’s more to it than you think. Life is a test of what is to come,” Eaton wrote in a Facebook post on April 16.
Eaton has been charged with more than half a dozen felonies over the past decade and was convicted of assault on April 14, according to state records.
Previous convictions include aggravated assault, an offense that would prevent him from legally owning a firearm.
The provenance and ownership of the firearms used in Tuesday’s shooting were unclear. State police declined to comment on the weapon or weapons used.
Eaton has a criminal history in both Maine and Florida. His crimes include aggravated assault, domestic violence and violence against a law enforcement officer, reports the Portland Press Herald.
The suspect was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 in the Sunshine State for gun crimes and assault.
On Friday, when he was released from prison, Eaton wrote on Facebook: “It’s finally over. There are so many people I can’t wait to see.’ A day later, he posted a photo of himself having breakfast with the caption, “Real food!!!!”
Bullet holes can be seen in the windshield of the silver sedan involved in the shooting
Maine State Police continue to search the area where the suspect was arrested as a precaution
Eaton faces four counts of murder. He has yet to be charged in the interstate shooting
Eaton’s mugshot: He has a long criminal history in Maine, with charges including assault and illegal possession of a firearm on his record
In Bowdoin, yellow police tape hung where the shooting took place in a house flanked by woods at the end of a long gravel driveway. Detectives and technicians stayed inside late Tuesday to collect evidence, long after hearses left the driveway.
Once a woman spoke to the police in front of the house, then fell on her knees and sobbed.
Traffic flowed normally on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth on Wednesday, where the three people in cars were shot and the shooter arrested a day earlier.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills tweeted her concern for the “families, friends and loved ones of those affected by this tragedy.” She said she prays for the injured.
“Like people throughout Maine, I am shocked and deeply saddened. Acts of violence like the ones we’ve witnessed today shake our state and communities to the core,” she said.
A witness to the interstate shooting told WGME-TV, a CBS News affiliate, “We just saw a lot of smoke. And my friend in the truck said, “I think that’s gunpowder, like powder smoke.”
State police said the three motorists who were shot were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds and one is in critical condition.
Speaking on Facebook, Bowdoin resident Ian Halsey said some of the victims were his cousins. “My cousin is in critical condition and my other cousin is stable. There is no connection between the victims. It was an accident that my family was shot,” Halsey told the Portland Press Herald.
Lisa Erickson told the newspaper she heard gunshots near her home in Yarmouth, minutes later her neighborhood was swarming with cops.
Erickson said responding officers told her and her neighbors to stay indoors while a search was conducted. The suspect’s abandoned car was parked near the woman’s home.
The city of Yarmouth has a population of about 9,000 and is located about 12 miles north of Maine’s largest city, Portland. Bowdoin is a small farming community of around 3,000 people.
Police ordered nearby people to protect themselves at the scene, but authorities later said there was no threat to the public.
Lenora Felker, who works near the freeway at Rosemont Market and Bakery, said she sensed something was afoot when people poured in saying the freeway was closed, followed by dozens of police officers heading into the area came.
Officers searched stores and asked if they “saw anyone who was wet and muddy fleeing,” Felker said. But she knows all the customers and hasn’t seen anything “out of the ordinary,” she said.