Police rescue man from Penobscot River after assault, pursuit in Old Town

OLD TOWN, Maine ― Rescue workers pulled an unidentified man from the Penobscot River near the reopened Old Town pulp mill after police spent hours looking for him earlier Tuesday on suspicion that he had assaulted someone at Pembroke Pines Apartments.

A small Maine Warden Service inflatable boat carrying two game wardens and two Old Town police went out into the river at about 3 p.m. to take the man into custody where he had been stranded on a large concrete block for several hours, Old Town police said in a statement released early Tuesday evening.

Rescue workers from several agencies gathered in Old Town to pull an unidentified man out of the Penobscot River on Tuesday. Photos courtesy of Mac Herrling

Police, including a tracking dog and a Maine Forest Service helicopter, had been searching for the man since about 3 a.m., when they got a report of a man attempting to hurt himself after allegedly assaulting someone at Pembroke, an apartment complex on Pembroke Drive about a mile west of the river. A police tracking dog and handler failed to locate the man, police said.

Police relocated the man when a resident reported seeing him running down Prentiss Street at about 6:25 a.m. Police saw the man on Water Street as he ran into the river. Police could not overcome river conditions to get to the man until the inflatable boat arrived, police said.

By then, police had issued a warning that the man could be suicidal and might have been armed with a knife. Charges are pending the man’s release from the hospital, according to police.