Deputy sheriff slain after judge freed suspect
The fugitive who remained the target of a massive manhunt last night in the killing of a Maine sheriff’s deputy was freed on sharply reduced bail by a Massachusetts judge just weeks ago after his arrest on gun charges.
Police say John Daniel Williams, 29, of Madison, Maine, fatally shot Somerset County Sheriff’s Cpl. Eugene Cole, 61, early yesterday morning in Norridgewock, Maine, then took off in his marked cruiser, robbed a Cumberland Farms convenience store, and disappeared. Williams had been due to appear in a Massachusetts court on gun charges yesterday.
Williams had been arrested in Massachusetts March 22 by state police who said they found him after his car went off Interstate 495 in Haverhill at 3:50 a.m. Police reported he was glassy-eyed and slurring his words, with an illegal handgun, ammo and large-capacity magazine in the trunk, as well as several bags of white and brown powder police suspected were drugs.
Judge Michael A. Patten set Williams’ bail at what he deemed an “appropriate” $5,000 (requiring only 10%, $500, for release).
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2018/04/maine_deputy_sheriff_slain_after_massachusetts_judge_freed_suspect
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