A Fort Fairfield man is in police custody after he allegedly threatened to bring a gun to unspecified schools in Aroostook County and Topsham. The man also allegedly made social media threats against President Joe Biden ahead of his upcoming visit to Maine on Friday.
Police arrested Adam Green, 36, of Fort Fairfield Thursday. He was charged with terrorizing and harassment by Topsham police and with felony terrorizing by Fort Fairfield police, Fort Fairfield Police Chief Matthew Cummings said.
Topsham Police Chief Mark Hagan said Green is also under investigation for making threats on social media to harm Biden when he comes to Lewiston on Friday. Hagan said he alerted the Secret Service and the FBI about Green’s behavior.
In an email, a spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service said the agency “does not confirm the existence or absence of a potentially ongoing investigation.”
Topsham police notified local police departments, including Presque Isle and Fort Fairfield, at approximately 12:30 p.m. Thursday that threats of violence had been made to unspecified local schools that someone was going to a school with an AR-15, Cummings said.
SAD 1 schools in Presque Isle and SAD 20 schools in Fort Fairfield went into soft lockdown, which means they locked all the doors and kept everyone inside. Fort Fairfield police and U.S. Border Patrol investigated in Fort Fairfield, the chief said.
Police took Green to the Aroostook County Jail, where bail was set at $100,000 cash, Cummings said. Multiple police departments are investigating, he said.
The situation was unrelated to a Thursday firearm incident at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle, SAD 1 school officials said in a community notification on social media.
The person allegedly made the threat at around 11:45 a.m., SAD 1 Superintendent Ben Greenlaw said.
“Caribou police notified SAD 1 that someone had threatened to bring a gun to an area school. We went into soft lockdown to keep everyone inside as a precaution,” Greenlaw said.
Green was never at the school, Greenlaw said. When school officials learned the person had been arrested, the normal school day resumed.
Green also threatened an unspecified elementary school in the Topsham area Thursday morning. Someone called the Topsham PD saying that Green was making fun of the Lewiston shooting on Facebook, Hagan said. When the caller questioned Green in a Facebook comment, they said Green threatened to show up to the caller’s local elementary school with an AR-15.
Green’s Facebook account can no longer be found.
Students and staff of MSAD 75 sheltered in place for a couple hours Thursday after the threat, according to Maine School Administrative District 75. The shelter-in-place was lifted around 1 p.m.
Presque Isle police investigated and found nothing amiss, dispatcher Nicole Dyer said.
“We were just taking extra precautions,” she said. “It was a very thinly veiled threat. Nothing happened and everyone is safe.”
BDN reporters Paul Bagnall and Jules Walkup contributed to this story. Walkup is a Report for America corps member. Additional support for this reporting is provided by BDN readers.
