Friends gather by river in Augusta to honor memory of man shot by police in armed confrontation - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

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Friends of Dustin Paradis toss flowers into the Kennebec River in Augusta Wednesday during a memorial service for the 34-year-old man who was shot and killed by police earlier this month during a confrontation with officers at the Bread of Life Shelter in Augusta. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Several friends said the late Dustin J. Paradis shared so much with them — his thoughts, his talent for playing the flute, his food, his bearhugs, his kindness, his love for animals, his troubles and his triumphs.

Paradis was shot and killed by police in an armed confrontation at the Bread of Life Shelter in Augusta last month.

Dustin Paradis Submitted photo

At a riverside gathering Wednesday in his memory, those same friends, sometimes choking back tears, shared their thoughts about him, as well as his untimely and what some said unnecessary death.

“When Dustin was around, you felt a safeness. He said he’d never hurt anyone else, only himself,” said Carnie Murray, who works at the LINC Center where Paradis came to visit almost every day, said it felt like Paradis was her son. The LINC Center is a recovery and vocational center in Augusta offering peer-to-peer counseling and community meeting space.

Paradis recently worked at Kohl’s department store, Murray said. In a final message she received from him before his death, she learned he was looking for an apartment of his own. “He had a kind heart,” she said. “I hope he finds peace.”

Paradis, 34, was living at the Bread of Life Shelter on Hospital Street in Augusta when police responded to an Oct. 13 report of a man armed with a knife and threatening other residents. Two Augusta police officers shot when they said Paradis brandished a knife when they entered the shelter.

Nina Charczenko, who also knew Paradis through the LINC Center, said she’s been through hard times in her life, too, and was “deeply saddened about what happened to him at the shelter.”

“It’s very disturbing. I just don’t think it had to happen.” She said police should have handled the call differently, and could have used a stun gun on him instead of shooting him.

Police said they arrived to find a male victim, who had apparently been in a confrontation with Paradis, with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Officers also almost immediately encountered Paradis inside the shelter, who they said was brandishing a knife.

Augusta police said the morning after the incident that Sgt. Christopher Blodgett and Officer Sabastian Guptill used deadly force against Paradis in the incident and that neither officer was injured. Police Chief Jared Mills said they both fired their guns during the incident, but he declined to say who is believed to have shot Paradis.

Friends gather Wednesday along the Kennebec River in Augusta to remember Dustin Paradis, a 34-year-old man who was shot and killed by police earlier this month during a confrontation with officers at the Bread of Life Shelter in Augusta. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

The shooting is the focus of two investigations, an internal investigation within the police department and the state Office of the Maine Attorney General, which investigates all police shootings in Maine. Both investigations are still underway.

Tammy Woodcock, Paradis’ mother, said previously her son had Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. She sent a message to vigil attendees Wednesday, which Bobby-Jo Bechard, an organizer of the vigil, read for the group 20 or so. Woodcock said her son was caring toward others, recalling him giving his lunch to another boy in school who didn’t have one and his big bearhugs, which attendees said they knew him for, as well.

Woodcock said Paradis was a large man — 6 feet 10 inches tall and likely 340 pounds — who could be intimidating. She said he was brilliant but, due to his autism, was emotionally like a 10-year-old boy.

In an interview with the Kennebec Journal from her home in Terre Haute, Indiana, Woodcock said her son was kind to others. But sometimes, especially when he was off his medications, he fell into a rage and would lash out by damaging objects, such as kitchen cabinets.

Sometimes, she said, he would even grab a knife. While that prompted numerous police responses, he never used the knives he grabbed on about a dozen other occasions, and she said he was not a threat to police or anyone else.

Other residents at Bread of Life at the time of the incident said another man there had been harassing him. On the day of the incident, Paradis had enough, and struck the other man in the head with a bowl in the common area of the shelter. His mother said he had told her he wanted to come home to her, shortly before he died at the shelter.

His friends put 34 carnations into the Kennebec River on Wednesday, one for each year of Paradis’s life, in his memory. They shared thoughts about him as they did, including “peace and love my friend.”

Damien Rogers said sometimes Paradis would bring food into the LINC Center, which he would always offer to others. The last time Rogers saw Paradis was when Paradis was working as a cashier at Kohl’s.

“He had a good heart; he was just an all-around good kid,” Rogers said. “He’ll always be in my heart.”

Brenda Sage recalls her friendship with Dustin Paradis, who was shot and killed by police earlier this month during a confrontation with officers at the Bread of Life Shelter in Augusta. Friends gathered at the west side of the Kennebec River in Augusta on Wednesday to recall their relationships with Paradis. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal

Brenda Sage met Paradis in July, when he introduced himself and said he had Asperger’s syndrome and sometimes liked to talk a lot.

“If you gave him kindness, he returned it two-fold,” she said. “He was creative, always drawing and writing. He played a pipe flute so beautifully I cried. He spoke about ideas for cooking that amazed the chef he was talking to. He was funny, smart and articulate.”