OAKFIELD, Maine — The Maine Attorney General’s Office continues to investigate the fatal officer involved shooting of a southern Aroostook man by a state trooper nearly a year ago.
The Oakfield Thriftway is pictured on May 7, 2018. (Jen Lynds | Houlton Pioneer Times)
Marc Malon, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said Friday that the investigation into the May 4, 2018, shooting of John Corneil in Oakfield has not been completed.
Malon said he could not release any additional information on the matter.
Corneil, 54, of Merrill was shot by Maine State Police Sgt. Chad Fuller during an armed confrontation outside the Thriftway grocery store in Oakfield.
The shooting occurred after Fuller and two other state troopers sought to arrest Corneil in connection with an incident that happened earlier in the week in Smyrna, Stephen McCausland spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety said at the time. Corneil was wanted on warrants charging him with assault, criminal threatening, terrorizing and reckless conduct related to that incident.
Corneil allegedly challenged troopers outside the store with a handgun, which was later determined to be a pellet gun resembling a Beretta 9 mm pistol.
Emergency medical personnel initially took Corneil to Houlton Regional Hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds, and later transferred him to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where he underwent surgery. He died on May 5.
Corneil had a significant history with law enforcement, which included convictions for assault on an officer and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon after he fired on a state police trooper who tried to serve him with an arrest warrant in 1998.
Fuller is a 21-year state police veteran.
The Maine attorney general’s office investigates every time Maine police use deadly force to determine whether officers were legally justified in taking a life, with the findings eventually made public once the investigation concludes.
