ME: Woman charged after she allegedly fired into a home while hunting

Woman charged after she allegedly fired into a home while hunting

December 09, 2010

WELLS — A Wells woman was charged with unlawful shooting or discharge of a firearm over or near a public way after a bullet pierced through a Nella Street home Nov. 12, police said.

Diane Gregoire, 48, of 101 Cheney Woods Road, had been out hunting with her husband at 6:50 a.m. Nov. 12 when, according to Wells police Sgt. Kent Berdeen, she fired her rifle at a deer and missed.

The bullet, police said, traveled only 300 feet before it passed through the exterior wall of the home at 52 Nella St.

The bullet sliced through a closet door before finally landing on the bathroom floor of the residence, according to a Wells police news release.

"I was sleeping and I woke up and I heard things falling on the floor," resident Pamela Coyne said. "When I got up I saw all sorts of stuff on the floor — cheap paint, plaster and chunks of the wall."

Coyne, who resides at the home with her husband, Richard Coyne, called police.

She said her husband had left the house for work only 20 minutes before the bullet ripped through a section of her kitchen where he had been standing.

"Police said if anybody had been standing there it would have killed them," Coyne said. "It came through with so much force."

Berdeen said police assisted the Maine Warden Service in carrying out the investigation and found that the bullet on the Coynes' bathroom floor had come from Gregoire's hunting rifle.

Police said Gregoire cooperated with authorities throughout the investigation and showed police where she had been hunting.

"(Gregoire) thought there were enough trees in the area to stop her rounds from traveling any farther," Wells police Lt. Jerry Congdon said Dec. 6.

He said vehicular traffic as well as the home itself had been visible from the spot where Gregoire fired her weapon.

He said everyone involved in the incident was "very lucky" nobody was hurt.

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