Police: Drunk Maine man with AR-15 tries to break into home, attacks officers

FRYEBURG, Maine (WMTW) - Police say a man who was drunk and armed with an AR-15 tried to break into a home in Fryeburg and repeatedly kicked a sheriff’s deputy.

Police say this all happened on Monday when Fryeburg Police were called to the area of Haleytown Road for a man who was drunk and had been shooting the AR-15. He was then having a confrontation with a homeowner and trying to get into that person’s home.

Oxford County Sheriff’s Deputies arrived just after police say the man charged at officers who responded by pepper spraying him.

Deputies helped try to get the man under control but say when they were trying to get him into a cruiser; he kicked a deputy several times.

Fryeburg Rescue tried to decontaminate the man after he was pepper sprayed, but police say he was so hostile that rescue personnel could not safely check him.

He was later checked out at Stephen’s Memorial Hospital in Norway and then taken to the Oxford County Jail in South Paris.

Craig Leighton, 39, of Fryeburg, faces several charges, including assault on police officers.

None of the officers involved was seriously hurt.