The Maine attorney general has found a State Trooper was legally justified in his use of deadly force when he fired a rifle into a suspect's pickup.

Attorney General Steven Rowe announced today that an investigation into the use of deadly force by Trooper Jason Wing on June 28 found he was justified because he felt Lawrence Lapoint, 51, of the town of Mexico, was threatening to drive into other officers and because he had earlier committed offenses of violence. Lapoint was not injured in the incident.

The troopers and a number of local officers were investigating reports of a domestic disturbance in which Lapoint threatened to kill his domestic partner, authorities said. Even though it was a dark and rainy night, police tracked him to a logging road and ordered him to get out of his pickup. Instead he started it up and began driving toward police.

Wing fired three shots into the car, and it stopped. Lapoint was taken into custody without injury.

State law requires the attorney general investigate all uses of deadly force by police even if nobody was hurt.