Gunman kills 3 in separate attacks in Maine

MADISON, Maine -- Police in Maine say a gunman killed three people at several locations before being fatally shot by deputies.

State police say the shootings happened Wednesday morning in the town of Madison. CBS affiliate WGME reports the shootings were reported at several locations along the same road the runs behind the Skowhegan Fairgrounds.

Somerset County deputies ended the rampage by killing the gunman, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said. 

Police didn't immediately release the identities of the gunman or the victims and declined to further discuss the investigation.

But a selectwoman in neighboring Skowhegan, Darla Pickett, said her daughter was one of the three victims, the Morning Sentinel reported. The condition of the survivor was unknown.

Deputies responding to an emergency call at 7:37 a.m. uncovered a grisly scene with three victims at different locations along a road, Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster said.

The gunman left the scene after killing the three people but returned and shot the fourth person while deputies were in the area, and the deputies then fatally shot him, Lancaster said.

The investigation was focusing on a home where a neighbor said there had been a party and fireworks the night before, on the Fourth of July. Police remained at the site on Wednesday, said neighbor Wayne Parlin, whose driveway was blocked by investigators.

A briefing was expected Wednesday afternoon.

The shootings happened about 4 miles from the center of town in Madison, a town of about 4,800 residents in central Maine.

The attorney general's office sent investigators to the scene to review the use of deadly force by sheriff's deputies.

It was the deadliest shooting in Maine since November 2015, when a gunman killed his girlfriend and a 3-year-old girl's parents before taking his own life in Oakland. The 3-year-old girl was the only survivor of that rampage.