Witness: Lee Market Basket Gunman Believed Droids Were After Him

LEE, NH — A Maine felon accused of randomly firing a handgun 13 times outside of a New Hampshire Market Basket Saturday is scheduled to be arraigned in superior court Tuesday on multiple felony charges.

At just before noon, officers were sent to the Lee Market Place shopping plaza for a report of an active shooter. According to police, several 911 calls claimed a man, armed with a handgun, was firing "several shots" in the parking lot near Market Basket and Rite Aid.

The first responding officer reported seeing a man, later identified as Gordon R. Falt, 27, "pacing around a pickup truck," an affidavit stated. The vehicle was registered out of Northeast Harbor.

Lee police requested both the county and Seacoast tactical teams while interviewing witnesses.

One, a social worker, said she approached the man, to help him. The woman said Falt told her he "was a drug addict" and he believed "droids and drones were trying to get him," the affidavit said. The woman told police the man was "having obvious mental illness issues" and "told her he was traveling to Maryland and amassing ammunition along the way," the report said. The woman accused Falt of wanting to take her hostage "as he did not want to die alone" and she safely backed away from him, the report said.

"Look," she accused him of saying, "I just shot 13 times and there are no police around."

A second witness said she parked and exited her vehicle and noticed the man in the pickup truck. A short time later, she heard several loud "pops" coming from an area where she parked her vehicle. When she looked back at the area, she saw Falt firing shots from the bed of the pickup truck, the affidavit said. She then ran to Rite Aid to take shelter.

The tactical teams were able to quickly arrest Falt without any more shots being fired, the report said. No one was injured, according to police.

Inside of his pickup truck, police accused Falt of being in possession of two pistols, a Glock .45 and a Ruger .44 magnum, a Colt M4 semi-automatic rifle, a Browning bolt action rifle, and a Browning semi-automatic shotgun as well as ammunition. The guns and ammo were stolen from a family member in Northeast Harbor, police said.

Falt, according to an NCIC search later, was not legally allowed to possess the firearms due to felony burglary and felony theft convictions in Hancock County Maine. In the burglary case, he was sentenced to four years in prison, all but 30 days suspended, with two years probation, according to court records.

Falt is scheduled to be arraigned in Strafford County Superior Court Tuesday. He faces 13 felony reckless conduct-deadly weapon counts, five felony counts of felon in possession of dangerous weapons, five felony receiving stolen property-firearm charges, and 14 counts of receiving stolen property-less than $1,000.

Falt, according to posts online, is an active musician, posting videos of his songs to YouTube.com during the past nine years, and also worked construction in Maine. According to an article on Vice.com from 2015, he was an active heroin user while checked into a rehab center in Vermont about seven years ago before moving back to Maine. Falt was arrested on the burglary charge in 2014, the article stated.

Editor's note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Lee Police Department and Strafford County Superior Court and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the removal request process for New Hampshire Patch police reports.

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