Gorman remains in Pike County jail
Published 12:00 am Friday, December 14, 2001
Messenger Publisher
The man who held Troy police at bay for four hours on Wednesday remained in a city jail late Thursday after a Pike County judge revoked his probation.
Jeffrey "Russ" Gorman, 21, of Scarborough, Maine, was being held on $20,000 bond for violating terms of his probation in Maine. Gorman had been convicted of theft and breaking and entering of a motor vehicle. He has signed a waiver of extradition, which could allow his transfer back to Maine, where police have said he is also a suspect in an Oct. 21 murder case.
Troy officers received a fugitive warrant on Gorman earlier this week, said Troy Police Chief Anthony Everage said. It was an attempt to serve the warrant that led to the standoff.
Police had received a tip that Gorman was at a residence on Highway 29, commonly known as the Luverne Highway. "He knew the people who were babysitting there," Everage said.
When police searched the house and found Gorman, he was armed with two guns and threatening to shoot himself. The other people in the residence ­ including at least one child ­ managed to leave the house unharmed.
Negotiators talked with Gorman for four hours, from 3 p.m. until about 7 p.m., before he agreed to surrender himself to police. "We’ve also charged him with a misdemeanor charge (of) menacing," Everage said, adding that bond had not been set for that charge.
"We know that we inconvenienced a lot of people with the traffic (Wednesday)," Everage said, referring to roadblocks which stopped traffic for several hours on the busy highway.
But, as TPD Public Information Office Bennie Scarbrough said Wednesday, officers wanted to keep Gorman contained. ‘We did not want him to leave that locatio," Scarbrough said.
Authorities have indicated that Gorman is a suspect in the disappearance of a 25-year-old Maine woman. The body of Amy St. Laurent of South Berwick was fond last weekend in a shallow grave in a wooded area of rural Scarborough. She disappeared on Oct. 21, after a night of dancing in Portland.