Police catch man climbing I-95 Piscataqua River Bridge Sunday night

Oct 15, 2024

KITTERY, Maine — Maine State Police safely took a man into custody late Sunday after he evaded law enforcement while running on the high-level Piscataqua River Bridge, then jumping down onto the structure and climbing a ladder high above the water.

A driver called authorities after 10 p.m. Sunday to report a man running along the northbound lanes of the I-95 bridge connecting Kittery, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, state police said. The man was later spotted scaling a ladder on the bridge, as seen by responding police through a thermal imaging camera.

Details of the incident were limited on Monday, a state holiday, but were provided by Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss.

An officer from the Kittery Police Department made contact with the unidentified man and unsuccessfully attempted to stop him on the bridge. The man hopped over the barrier onto the bridge structure, leading the town police officer to initially believe the man had jumped off the bridge and into the river, according to Moss.

Authorities then viewed the man climbing up and down a ladder on the bridge using thermal imaging, Moss added.

“A (Maine State Police) Trooper was able to stop him and take him into custody,” Moss said in an email Monday afternoon. “He told police multiple times he was not suicidal, had no intentions of jumping, and did not want to go to the hospital.”

The man was taken into custody. It was not immediately clear Monday whether the man was charged. The Kittery Police Department referred a reporter to Maine State Police on Monday.

“There were no other cars at the time, so traffic wasn’t impacted,” Moss added.

New Hampshire State Police additionally responded to the bridge, while the U.S. Coast Guard arrived at the scene by boat in the event the man jumped or fell into the water.

The Sunday night scare occurred just more than six weeks after a Troy, New Hampshire man was fatally shot on the high-level bridge in late August in an officer-involved incident. The decedent, Trent Weston, is suspected by law enforcement to have shot and killed his wife, Brittany Weston, at their Troy, New Hampshire apartment on Aug. 29, before also their 8-year-old son.

Police encountered Weston on the Piscataqua River Bridge hours after the Troy shooting, found the 8-year-old child already deceased in the car Weston was driving, then shot and killed him after Weston allegedly raised a firearm after hours of negotiations.

The incident led to hours of heavy traffic delays in and around Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire the morning of Aug. 29. The initial Troy shooting and the subsequent officer-involved fatality on the I-95 bridge remain under investigation by authorities in Maine and New Hampshire.