Maine shooting Grisly scene at Bowdoin home revealed as Joseph Eaton motive unknown

The three people injured in the highway shooting were named as Sean Halsey and his children, Justin Halsey and Paige Halsey.

Paige, 25, was in critical condition from the shooting.

However, on Wednesday, her father confirmed that her condition had improved and she is now able to breathe on her own.

“Everyone is currently making progress toward healing and we are optimistic for full recovery,” Sean Halsey told WMTW.

Betty Fagan, Joseph Eaton’s grandmother and the mother of victim Cynthia Eaton, said her grandson had been dropped off at a beach and spent the weekend alone after being retrieved from prison.

The parents had come back to Maine but were planning to move to Kansas, where they’d lived previously, Fagan said.

She said she doesn’t understand what went wrong. “I couldn’t believe it. I just couldn’t believe he would do something like that,” Fagan said from her home in Ocala, Florida.

Police declined to comment on Joseph Eaton’s living arrangements after leaving prison beyond saying his parents were helping him with accommodations.

Police also did not comment on whether drugs or mental illness played a role in the killings.

A Maine man who police say confessed to shooting seven people — killing four of them, including his parents — after being released from prison was due to appear before a judge Thursday.

Police have not discussed what might have been a motive behind the shootings on a rural property in Bowdoin and then along a busy interstate highway in Yarmouth, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Maine’s largest city, Portland.

The suspect, Joseph Eaton, has been jailed since his arrest Tuesday at a chaotic scene along Interstate 295, where traffic backed up as heavily armed law enforcement searched the area.

Eaton, 34, had been released four days before the shootings from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. Police say his mother picked up from prison April 14 after he completed a sentence for aggravated assault.

The latest in a string of mass shootings in the United States began in the small town of Bowdoin, where four people were killed Tuesday, with three bodies discovered in a home and one in a barn, police said. The victims were identified as Joseph Eaton’s parents, Cynthia Eaton, 62, and David Eaton, 66, along with their friends, homeowners Robert Eger, 72, and Patricia Eger, 62, police said.

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Suspect Joseph Eaton appeared in court on Thursday for the first time since the bodies of the four victims, including his parents, were found on Tuesday.

During the short court appearance, the judge scheduled a conference for 28 June.

Mr Eaton shared an emotional video of himself online on Monday where he said that people think he is “just another f*** up” and complained about people who “claim to be Christian”.

In the footage, he is seen sitting in a car filming himself as he chokes up with tears and goes on a confusing ramble.

“I’m probably going to get emotional just talking about it,” he said.

“But a lot of people look at you and think ‘oh well there’s just another f*** up, another guy that can’t get his stuff together, treats people like s***’ and then they turn around and claim to be Christian.

“And you can’t forgive somebody or understand what they go through. You can’t give someone a second chance but you say you’re Christian. How does that make sense? Why can’t you just try to get to know the person again? What good’s it do to hate somebody? It destroys you.

Joseph Eaton has a lengthy rap sheet going back more than a decade before Tuesday’s shooting spree and was only released from prison four days before Tuesday’s attack.

Past convictions include burglary, felony aggravated assault, domestic violence and violence against a law enforcement officer, as well as possessing a weapon as a felon.

Most recently, he was sentenced to eight months in prison for assault in March 2022. He was then returned to prison for violating his probation.

On Friday, he was released from Maine Correctional Center in Windham – just four days before he allegedly went on his killing rampage.

Based on his felony convictions, he also could not legally own a firearm.

In Bowdoin, Denise Pride, 58, a neighbor, said one of the victims was famous for delivering baked goods to neighbors on holidays. “They were very kind people,” Pride said. “The neighbors were texting, shocked that it happened, and to them.”

A relative to the family shot on the highway, Ian Halsey of Bowdoinham, said that two of his cousins were shot and that his uncle suffered shrapnel injuries. None of the family knew the shooter, he said.

“They were just passersby in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said of his family. “It’s horrible what happened.”

Court records in the Maine shooting spree revealed the grisly crime scene discovered by police called to the scene after suspect Joseph Eaton allegedly shot and killed four people, including his parents and their two friends.

Mr Eaton has confessed to the killings in Bowdoin, Maine. He was detained on Tuesday after opening fire while driving down a highway 20 miles away in Yarmouth, injuring three people.

The suspect appeared in court in West Bath on Thursday, his first appearance since the killings.

He was only released from prison on Friday and has now been charged with four counts of intentional or knowing murder.

The victims, who all died of gunshot wounds, include his parents Cynthia Eaton, 62 and David Eaton, 66, and their friends Robert Eager, 72 and Patti Eager, 62.

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The grandmother of Maine shooting suspect Joseph Eaton has reacted to his arrest after he allegedly confessed to killing four people, including his own parents.

Betty Fagan lost her daughter Cynthia Eaton in the shooting, who was the mother of the suspect. Police have not yet commented on a motive for the killings, after which Mr Eaton allegedly opened fire on an interstate.

Ms Eaton had picked up her son from prison on 14 April when he was released after serving a term for aggravated assault.

Ms Eaton and her husband David Eaton, the father of the suspect, were found shot dead at a home in Bowdoin on Tuesday morning along with their friends Robert and Patricia Eger.

Ms Fagan, who lives in Ocala, Florida, said her grandson was taken to a beach after being released from prison, and that he had spent the weekend on his own.

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