LEWISTON — A judge set bail Monday at $200,000 cash for a Massachusetts man charged with attempted murder from a Friday shooting on Bartlett Street.
According to witnesses and surveillance video, Nathaniel D. Ashwood, 32, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was walking through a crowd of people early that evening, including women and children, and confronted a woman, asking if she was laughing at him, police said.
He then pulled a gun from his waistband and aimed it at her head and told her to give him all of her money, according to an affidavit by police Detective Joey Brown.
When the woman refused, Ashwood pulled the trigger, but the gun only clicked and didn’t fire. He racked the slide back on the gun as people in the area scattered, including the woman.
Ashwood ran from the woman, but fired shots in her direction, witnesses said.
Police later recovered nine shell casings from the area of 129 Bartlett St., where the confrontation occurred and along the street in the direction Ashwood ran, Brown wrote in his affidavit.
All of the witnesses, including the woman Ashwood allegedly attempted to rob, said they didn’t recognize him.
Prosecutors charged Ashwood with attempted murder and robbery, both Class A crimes and each punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
He also was charged with reckless conduct with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, both Class C felonies, each punishable by up to five years in prison.
Police had responded to reports of shots fired shortly before 5 p.m. Friday on Bartlett Street, near Walnut Street, Brown wrote.
A dispatcher described the suspect as a black man wearing a white T-shirt fleeing in the direction of Birch Street.
One of the officers headed to the scene saw someone matching the suspect’s description being chased on Blake Street by a white man in a light-colored shirt, Brown wrote.
Brown, who was driving an unmarked police car, pulled over on Pierce Street, got out of the car, and saw the suspect running toward him up a driveway.
Brown ordered Ashwood to the ground and put handcuffs on him, Brown wrote in his affidavit.
Police found the gun, a gray baseball hat and a pair of sunglasses apparently belonging to Ashwood nearby and collected them as evidence.
The man who was seen chasing Ashwood also was handcuffed. He later told police he had witnessed the attempted robbery of the woman on Bartlett Street and had attempted to intervene.
Nobody was struck but early reports were that several shots were fired and that a single shot had passed through a window and into an apartment building.
Street surveillance video confirmed statements from the witnesses, including the man who was chasing Ashwood, Brown wrote.
A judge found Ashwood was partially indigent and assigned him a lawyer. Bail conditions include no use or possession of a firearm or dangerous weapon for which he can be searched at random and no contact with three of the witnesses.
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