Brewer Police Officer Approaches Reporters With Gun Drawn

In what turned out to be a misunderstanding, a Brewer Police officer approached two newspaper reporters with his gun drawn.

According to the BDN, two of its reporters were at an abandoned house in Brewer, doing a story on the building's future now that the City has taken possession of it. A city official was taking the women on a tour of the house at 91 Longmeadow Drive that has experienced a lot of police activity in recent years. The city foreclosed on the property last month and plans to resell it.

On Thursday, BDN reporters Nok-Noi Ricker and photographer Ashley Conti were getting a look at the inside of the house when Sergeant Fred Luce approached them. He was answering a report to the Police Station of what the caller believed to have been two teenagers trespassing in the house. Luce had his gun drawn when he confronted the women, and allegedly kept it drawn until Assistant City Manager James Smith came into view. No one was hurt in the incident and no shots were fired.

Brewer Police officials told the BDN that Sergeant Luce followed procedure, given the report made to the department. The two reporters said it was 'unnerving' and 'scary.'

The house has been a source of controversy in Brewer for several years. Owner Candice White stopped paying property taxes three years ago, due to a series of what she told the BDN were 'hardships.' White bought the house with inheritance money from her mother's estate, but shortly after moving in, her live-in boyfriend died. She was left raising her two daughters and her boyfriend's daughter. Then she suffered a debilitating stroke. While she recovered in the hospital, she says the young people wrecked the house with wild parties that brought police to the door more than 100 times.