A US man has been charged with murder after allegedly killing four people in a home before shooting three others on a nearby interstate shortly afterward.
Authorities arrested Joseph Eaton, 34, hours after he opened fire in Bowdoin, Maine, and on Interstate 295 on Tuesday morning.
Law enforcement rushed to the scene in Bowdoin at 10:30am and found four victims, before hearing reports multiple people were shot in cars travelling along the highway around 25 miles from the first shootings.
It has not been revealed how Eaton was taken into custody. However, officials quickly connected the shootings, and he is currently in custody and is expected in court later this week.
Maine State Police maintained that there is no further threat to the public after the suspect connected to both shootings was taken into custody. Authorities are yet to discuss a motive.
‘A person of interest has been detained, and the incidents are connected,’ Maine State Police Lt. Randall Keaten told reprorters prior to the arrest.
A witness to the interstate shooting told CBS News affiliate WGME-TV: ‘We just saw a bunch of smoke. And my friend in the truck was like, ‘I think that’s gunpowder, like gunsmoke.’
State police have said that the three motorists who were shot have been hospitalized with gunshot wounds, and one remains in critical condition.
On Facebook, Bowdinham resident Ian Halsey said that 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 random that my family was shot at,’ Halsey told the Portland Press Herald.
Maine State Police are continuing to search the area where the suspect was taken into custody out of an abundance of caution.
