Man fatally shoots mother while they drive in Maine, then kills another driver, police say

Police Chief Ryan McGee spoke at a news conference about the shooting in Gray, Maine, on Thursday, April 3, 2025.Patrick Whittle/Associated Press

A 29-year-old man, suffering a “mental health crisis,” fatally shot his mother in a moving vehicle in Maine on Wednesday afternoon, before shooting another motorist to death, wounding two others, and taking his own life, authorities said Thursday.

State Police Colonel William G. Ross told reporters during a news briefing that the assailant, James Davis III, went to his father’s house in Sabattus, about 40 miles north of Portland, and spent most of the day there with relatives.

“Throughout the day he started to act erratically,” Ross said. “And he started saying things that didn’t make sense.”

Davis brought several guns to his father’s house, including a .357 revolver, an AK-47 rifle, and “maybe one or two other firearms,” Ross said. Throughout the day, relatives were trying to get in touch with his mother, Christine Smith, 47, whom he lived with and who seemed to be able to calm him whenever he experienced “these types of issues,” Ross said.

Davis’s father eventually got home and the family made arrangements to take Davis to see Smith, who met her son near the residence. He got in her car, Ross said, and while they were driving, he shot her to death at the intersection of King Street and Route 9 near the Lisbon line.

After the car crossed the road and came to a stop on someone’s front lawn, Davis got out of the car while brandishing the rifle, Ross said.

Davis “pointed it down the roadway” toward oncoming traffic and “opened fire on several vehicles,” fatally striking Katherine Williams, 53, a Sabattus resident driving down the road, Ross said.

Davis also shot two other drivers, Tyson Turner, 19, of Jay, and David Wilson, 35, of Hartford, both of whom are expected to survive their injuries, before turning the gun on himself, Ross said.

“A very dynamic scene involving a mother and an adult child,” Ross said. “So that has a domestic undertone to it. Then you have random acts of violence [inflicted on] people that James Davis III did not know, and did not have contact [with] prior to the shooting.”

Ross said State Police had no previous interactions with Davis. Authorities are checking to see if he had interacted with other local police agencies.

The police chief in Lisbon, Ryan McGee, said it was “our first interaction with this individual.” He said his heart goes “out to everybody that was involved in this incident, all the families and victims.”

Ross said authorities are continuing to investigate what led Davis to violence.

“What we know from interviewing family members is that he was definitely in some type of mental health crisis that day,” Ross said. “But in terms of some longer-term medical issues involving mental health, they weren’t indicating that that was present. To what extent and how prolonged his episode was, that is not clear right now. But based on interviews we have done with the family, it doesn’t appear that this is something that has been around for a while.”

Ross said Davis had the guns with him “all day” before opening fire.

“And based on interviews we’ve had, I don’t believe there was any discussion of removing those firearms or calling the police,” Ross said.

He said Davis owned “several firearms” and that investigators recovered additional guns at his home after the shootings.

“We’re tracking down all of those serial numbers and we’ll be able to have more definitive information as this investigation continues,” Ross said.

He said Davis did not have a driver’s license and that his work history was “sporadic.”

“When you have random acts of violence, you really need to vet that out,” he said. “And that is truly a random act of violence. Is there any connection between the shooter and the last three people that were shot? And right now we don’t believe that there is any connection.”

Sabattus, an Androscoggin County town with about 5,000 residents, is located just east of the Lewiston-Auburn area, where a mass shooting in October 2023 left 18 people dead and another dozen wounded.