AUBURN -- A Lisbon man is in the hospital with a gunshot wound after leading police on a three-hour, 10-mile long chase last night.

Bartolo Ford, 47, is in satisfactory condition at Central Maine Medical Center this morning after being shot last night by an Auburn police officer who was trying to stop Ford and his dump truck.

The incident began at 9 p.m. when Auburn police received a call about a theft from Superior Concrete on Minot Avenue. Auburn police responded and Ford, who was driving a dump truck full of what police believe were stolen cement tiles, fled.

During the pursuit, Ford rammed his dump truck into a cruiser being driven by Cpl. Kristopher Bouchard.

AP Photo/Lewiston Sun Journal, Russ Dillingham
An Auburn police officer talks on his cell phone next to a
cruiser damaged by a truck stolen from Superior Concrete
Company in Auburn. Another cruiser was also rammed
several miles down the road.

Bouchard fired his weapon, striking Ford in the leg, while he was still in the vehicle. Police say Ford continued to flee, driving the dump truck down Hotel Road into Poland.

He then rammed another police cruiser driven by Officer Matthew Johnson, and kept going. After trying to ram a third cruiser, Ford ditched the dump truck and took off on foot after crashing the truck into two more parked cars on Hines Road in Poland. He was found a short distance from where the truck was abandoned.

Police sent him to the hospital and plan to arrest him with multiple charges later today. Cpl. Bouchard was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Attorney General's Office, as is the case with any Auburn police officer who fires a weapon in the line of duty.

More than 25 officers from the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department, the Maine State Police, the Oxford County Sheriff's Department and the Lewiston Police Department aided Auburn police in the search.

None of the officers involved were seriously injured.

View Larger Map
This map shows the basic course that police say Bartolo Ford took last night to elude them during a chase that began in Auburn and ended 10 miles later in Poland.

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