Office of the Maine Attorney General

Deadly Force Review Panel Report on Belfast, June 10, 2024

June 10, 2024 – Belfast Use of Deadly Force Incident

As required by 5 M.R.S. § 200-K, the Maine Deadly Force Review Panel submits the following report of the use of deadly force incident in Belfast on June 10, 2024, involving Sergeant Nicholas Oettinger of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department, which resulted in the death of Daniel Ryan, age 65. By statute, after the release of the report of the Attorney General, the Panel shall examine deaths or serious injuries resulting from the use of deadly force by a law enforcement officer. The purpose of the examination is to find independently whether there was compliance with accepted and best practices under the circumstances or whether the practices require adjustment or improvement. The Panel may recommend methods to improve standards, including changes to statutes, rules, training, and policies and procedures, to ensure best practices that promote increased public and officer safety. It should be noted that the Panel’s “Observations” are case-specific bullet points that have been pulled directly from the incident case file and are primarily intended to highlight key pieces of information. The Panel’s “Recommendations” should be viewed as potential system-level issues to consider during future critical incidents. The Panel is not charged with undertaking a de novo review of the Attorney General’s determination regarding the legality of the use of deadly force by law enforcement; discussions and recommendations of the Panel are independent of the Attorney General.

Synopsis

During the early afternoon hours of June 10, 2024, Daniel Ryan called the Waldo Regional Communications Center twice. He said that he wanted the Belfast Police to respond to his apartment building immediately and that he was going to burn down the building within “10 to 15 minutes.” Officers responded and, when they arrived, they could hear Mr. Ryan hollering inside his apartment, breaking glass, and making threats to burn down the building. The officers tried to evacuate tenants from their apartments. After the arrival of additional officers, a team entered the building and climbed a narrow stairway to Mr. Ryan’s apartment door. After unsuccessful attempts to open it, an officer forced entry. Sgt. Nicholas Oettinger of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office, the first to enter, saw Mr. Ryan holding a flaming gasoline can and ignoring Sgt. Oettinger’s commands to put the can down. Mr. Ryan began approaching the officers, swinging the container towards them. Sgt. Oettinger shot Mr. Ryan, and the officers quickly evacuated the building. Belfast firefighters quickly extinguished the fire. Mr. Ryan died at the scene.

Information the Panel Reviewed

Before its March 26, 2026, meeting, the Panel members received the investigative material compiled by the Attorney General. The material consisted of all the original investigative data, including interview recordings, reports, forensic reports, photographs, emergency communications, body camera footage, and other relevant materials. The Panel also reviewed the Attorney General’s March 6, 2025, report and the Internal Review Team's report dated August 30, 2024.

Panel Discussion

On March 26, 2026, the panel met via Zoom to review and discuss the incident in question. The discussion included the subject's notably older age compared to other cases, the Togus VA Hospital discharging a vulnerable individual, firefighters being proactively staged, law enforcement proactively evacuating the building ahead of any action, law enforcement needing ready access to appropriate breaching tools, communication among the law enforcement team and between law enforcement and firefighters, positive efforts at communication with the subject, and the transition from law enforcement to firefighters after the shooting.

Case Specific Observations

  1. The 65-year-old suspect in this incident was honorably discharged from his 1977-1980 Army service. He had no criminal history after September 2007. Previously, he had misdemeanor convictions that resulted in fines and a one-day jail sentence.
  2. The suspect suffered from chronic urinary retention, which led to self-catheterization and, over the years, caused infections that can sometimes lead to delirium.
  3. According to his own report, the suspect was a chronic marijuana user, although there is no clear evidence that his marijuana use played a role in this incident.
  4. A case manager from an organization that provides counseling for at-risk individuals worked with the suspect. The Attorney General's investigation file includes detailed timeline notes prepared by the case manager covering the period from May 28, 2024, through the incident date of June 10, 2024. These records show that the suspect was suffering from a severe urinary tract infection requiring inpatient care at the Belfast hospital from June 1-3, 2024, followed by inpatient care at the Togus VA hospital from June 4-6, 2024. The case manager reports that on June 6, 2024, she noted an increase in the suspect's paranoid symptoms and advised Togus VA that Homeworthy wanted to go on record opposing Togus VA's decision to discharge the suspect that day. During the case manager's call with the suspect on June 7, 2024, the suspect exhibited heightened paranoia, indicating that he was hearing noises and was concerned that others were listening in on the call.
  5. The Togus VA discharge summary for June 6, 2024, indicates that the suspect's "disordered thinking" did not meet the criteria for psychiatric admission and that his behavior was attributed to delirium, possibly with an underlying schizotypal personality disorder. Another Togus VA record from a February 2024 visit indicated that the suspect also had diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
  6. The Panel commends both law enforcement and firefighters for a well-communicated plan and for proactively evacuating the multi-unit apartment building and shutting off the building's propane tanks. However, after the shooting, there appeared to be an initial lack of communication between law enforcement and firefighters.
  7. A taser was deployed against an individual holding a lit gas canister.

System Level Recommendations

  1. The desire to use a less-lethal option in this case is understandable given the circumstances. However, officers should be mindful that deploying a taser against an individual holding a lit gas canister may conflict with standard taser training and policy and be dangerous for all parties involved, including the officers.
  2. While the initial planning with fire personnel went well, when law enforcement retreated from the building after the shooting, fire personnel dragged a fire hose to the entryway from which law enforcement had just retreated. Post-shooting communication and planning are equally important, and a more coordinated response is safer for all the first responders.

Factual Summary

On June 10, 2024, at 1:29 pm, Daniel Ryan, 65, of Belfast, called the Waldo Regional Communications Center and said he was “going to burn this place down,” then hung up. When a dispatcher tried to call Mr. Ryan back, he answered and said he would burn down the apartment building in which he resided in “10 to 15 minutes.” Additionally, an employee of a behavioral health organization called 911 to report that Mr. Ryan had contacted them and was making threats to burn down his apartment building.

Belfast police officers were familiar with Mr. Ryan, having interacted with him in the past and earlier that morning during a welfare check. They responded to the apartment building while requesting backup from the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office. When Belfast officers arrived at the multi-unit apartment complex, they tried to communicate with Mr. Ryan, who could be heard in his second-floor apartment shouting, breaking glass, and making threats to burn down the building. Firefighters were summoned, and the officers began evacuating other tenants from the building. Waldo County deputy sheriffs arrived, including Sgt. Nicholas Oettinger. Officers tried unsuccessfully to engage Mr. Ryan in dialogue to de-escalate the situation. Still, Mr. Ryan refused to come to the door of his apartment and continued to threaten that he would burn down the building, at one point counting, “one, two, three, four...”

At 1:52 pm, a team of three officers led by Sgt. Oettinger entered the building and traversed the narrow stairway to Mr. Ryan’s second-floor apartment door. Sgt. Oettinger was unable to open the locked door; another officer forced entry with a sledgehammer. Sgt. Oettinger entered the apartment first and was immediately confronted by Mr. Ryan, who was holding a flaming gasoline can. Ignoring commands to drop the can, Mr. Ryan approached Sgt. Oettinger swinging the flaming can. Sgt. Oettinger fired his rifle at Mr. Ryan while another officer fired a Taser. Sgt. Oettinger then shouted to the other officers to get out, and the three officers evacuated the building. Belfast firefighters, who had earlier staged outside, quickly extinguished the fire. Mr. Ryan died at the scene.

A later postmortem examination and autopsy conducted by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner determined Mr. Ryan’s cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds to the upper chest and abdomen, which resulted in fatal injuries to the lungs, the heart, and the intestines. A toxicology examination revealed that Mr. Ryan had elevated levels of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient of marijuana, in his system.

Panel Members

  • Stephen Burlock, Esq., Assistant District Attorney (Retired), Chair
  • Benjamin Strick, Vice President of Adult Behavioral Health, Spurwink, Vice Chair
  • Michael Alpert, Greater Bangor Area Branch NAACP
  • John Chapman, Esq.
  • Jack Clements, Chief of Police, Saco
  • Sandra Slemmer, designee of Alice J. Briones, D.O., Chief Medical Examiner
  • Anna Love, Chief, Attorney General Investigations
  • Joel Merry, Sheriff, Sagadahoc County
  • Joshua Daley, designee of Lincoln Ryder, Director, Maine Criminal Justice Academy
  • Michael Sauschuck, Commissioner, Department of Public Safety
  • Fernand LaRochelle, Citizen Member

Note: The individuals serving on the Panel are appointed to apply their professional expertise to discussions of these complex cases. Therefore, members of the Panel may be familiar with or have contact with individuals involved in the case under review. In such cases, members must report these affiliations to the Panel, and this information is recorded in the meeting minutes. If panel members determine they have a conflict of interest, they are excused from voting on the panel’s findings and recommendations for that case.