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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A man who crashed a stolen police vehicle, survived gunfire from 11 police officers and then drove off and crashed another police cruiser — all while wearing handcuffs in a hospital gown — is in no mental capacity to appear before a judge right now, his lawyer said Friday. The chaotic chain of events involving at least five law enforcement agencies began when Gary Porter, already wanted on a felony theft warrant, was discovered passed out in a chicken coop on Monday, arrested and taken to a hospital for evaluation, police said. Paris Police Chief Mike Dailey then took him to jail, and had stepped out of the pickup truck to escort him inside when Porter somehow slipped his handcuffs from behind his back, moved into the driver’s seat and drove off. The chief jumped onto the truck’s running board to try to stop him, but was thrown to the ground, authorities said. A chase ensued, joined by officers from Norway, Oxford and Paris, sheriff’s deputies and state police in a mostly rural part of Maine about 48 miles from Portland, police said. They eventually deployed spike mats that blew the tires and caused Porter to crash into a ditch. A bystander’s video captured at least part of the gunfire at that point: With his hands still in cuffs, Porter circles around the truck and jumps into another police vehicle in full view of officers. Shots ring out as he climbs into the second cruiser with his back to police and takes off again. The video shows him swerving and driving away. Authorities said he crashed again a short distance from there. By the end, 11 officers ultimately fired their weapons, and Porter was struck once by an officer’s bullet. Police didn’t say that any officers were hit. Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss said initially, without providing more detail, that “officers confronted Porter and gunfire was exchanged.” That was in a statement on behalf of all of the law enforcement departments involved. But the departments involved didn’t release key details of the confrontation, including whether Porter obtained a weapon or fired it. They also didn’t information about the extent of injuries. The Office of the Maine Attorney General said Friday that Porter was shot, treated and released from a hospital. Porter’s initial court appearance on two counts of theft, assault on a police officer, escaping custody, eluding police and violation of bail was set for Wednesday, by video conference from the Cumberland County Jail, but his defense said the medication he was given made him mumble and unable to keep his eyes open. He had another opportunity on Friday, but his attorney Justin Leary, said he still wasn’t fit to go before a judge. “I don’t think he’s mentally equipped right now to go forward,” Leary said. A mental examination was requested and Porter was scheduled to return to court on May 15. The bystander who recorded the video of the roadside confrontation in Paris, Linda Marie Mercer, said she had arrived on the scene to see a truck in the ditch and numerous police vehicles alongside it. She said she heard gunfire and saw officers shooting into the truck. She thought the person in the truck might have been killed — the officers appeared to relax. But the video shows what happened next: Porter, still cuffed and in a white hospital gown, ignored shouts of “put your hands up!” and climbed into an SUV that had been left with its driver’s door wide open. More bullets flew as he drove away. Eleven officers are on administrative leave following the shooting, authorities said. It was the largest number of police officers to discharge their guns in a single incident in recent memory in the state, said Brian MacMaster, a long-time investigator for the attorney general’s office, who’s now retired after a career that began in 1969. It’s standard practice for officers to be placed on administrative leave after using deadly force in Maine. Officers are generally off duty for about a month before being evaluated and allowed to return, MacMaster said. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. announced a new $400 million package of military aid for Ukraine on Friday, as Kyiv struggles to hold off advances by Russian troops in the northeast Kharkiv region. This is the third tranche of aid for Ukraine since Congress passed supplemental funding in late April after months of gridlock. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned Thursday that his country was facing “a really difficult situation” in the east, but said a new supply of U.S. weapons was coming and “we will be able to stop them.” The package includes High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and rockets for them, as well as munitions for Patriot and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, artillery, anti-aircraft and anti-tank munitions, and an array of armored vehicles, such as Bradley and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. It will also provide a number of coastal and riverine patrol boats, trailers, demolition munitions, high-speed anti-radiation missiles, protective gear, spare parts and other weapons and equipment. The weapons are being sent through presidential drawdown authority, which pulls systems and munitions from existing U.S. stockpiles so they can go quickly to the war front. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the latest military aid was intended, in part, to help Ukraine fend off the surging Russian effort to capture Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. Kirby noted that Russia has already launched initial incursions into areas around the towns of Vovchansk and Lyptsi, near Kharkiv. “It is possible that Russia will make further advances in the coming weeks, but we do not anticipate any major breakthroughs,” Kirby said. “And over time, the influx of U.S. assistance will enable Ukraine to withstand these attacks over the course of 2024.” The U.S. has now provided about $50.6 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. Almost immediately after President Joe Biden signed the $95 billion foreign aid package, the Pentagon announced it was sending $1 billion in weapons through that drawdown authority,. And just days later the Biden administration announced a $6 billion package funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term contracts with the defense industry and means that the weapons could take many months or years to arrive. Russia has sought to exploit Ukraine’s shortages of ammunition and manpower as the flow of Western supplies since the outbreak of the war petered out while Congress struggled to pass the bill. Moscow has assembled large troop concentrations in the east as well as in the north and has been gaining an edge on the battlefield, Zelenskyy said. Officials did not say if the latest package includes more of the long-range ballistic missiles — known as the Army Tactical Missile System — that Ukraine has repeatedly requested. The U.S. secretly sent a number of the missiles to Ukraine for the first time this spring and the White House has said it would send more. In one case, Ukraine used them to bomb a Russian military airfield in Crimea. The new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the striking distance — up to 300 kilometers (190 miles) — than it had with the mid-range version of the weapon that it received from the U.S. in October. ___ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge put Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson under a court conservatorship to oversee his personal and medical affairs after the legendary songwriter’s doctor reported that he has a major neurocognitive disorder. The judge on Thursday appointed two longtime Wilson representatives, publicist Jean Sievers and manager LeeAnn Hard, as his conservators. There were no significant objections raised. Wilson, 81, is the latest celebrity to be involved in a conservatorship case. Others include Amanda Bynes, the young actor who was placed under her parents’ control for nine years, and Casey Kasem, the radio and TV personality whose conservatorship became part of a fierce fight between his wife and adult children before his death in 2014. Music legend Joni Mitchell was put under a temporary conservatorship after a 2015 a brain aneurysm, before she made a strong recovery. Most famous was the controversial conservatorship of Britney Spears, which ended in 2021 after nearly 14 years. The #FreeBritney campaign helped garner national attention amid the popstar’s attempts to regain control over her finances and livelihood. She alleged that she had been mistreated by her father, who was her conservator. James Spears and his attorneys argued that she was especially susceptible to people who want to take advantage of her fame and fortune. Here’s a look at how conservatorships operate, what led to Wilson’s case, and the #FreeBritney impact: WHAT DOES CONSERVATORSHIP MEAN? When a person is considered to have a severely diminished mental capacity, a court can step in and grant others the power to make financial decisions and major life choices for them, sometimes without their consent. They most often involve people with developmental or intellectual disabilities, or those with age-related issues such as dementia. California law says a conservatorship, called a guardianship in some states, is justified for a “person who is unable to provide properly for his or her personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter,” or for someone who is “substantially unable to manage his or her own financial resources or resist fraud or undue influence.” The conservator may be a family member, a close friend or a court-appointed professional. They may control either a person’s life decisions, their financial decisions, or both. Although Spears’ case brought attention — much of it negative — to conservatorships, Wilson’s is closer to the typical use of a conservatorship, which very often are installed for older people going through irreversible mental decline. Although conservatorship can always be dissolved by the court, it’s rare that a person achieves their own release from one — as Spears essentially did. In another high-profile case, Cher is asking the court put one of her sons into a conservatorship controlling his money. The award-winning singer and actor argued in a petition that 47-year-old Elijah Blue Allman’s large payments from the trust of his late father, rocker Gregg Allman, are putting him in danger because of his struggles with mental health and substance abuse. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica A. Uzcategui was not convinced that a conservatorship was urgently needed and in January declined the petition for a temporary one. She is still considering a larger, long-term conservatorship and will hear more arguments at a hearing in June, but she indicated that she isn’t inclined to side with Cher. WHAT LED TO WILSON’S CONSERVATORSHIP? Wilson, who some have lauded as a musical genius and who wrote or cowrote many of the Beach Boys’ biggest hits, including “Good Vibrations” and “God Only Knows,” struggled with mental health and substance abuse issues that upended his career in the 1960s. He met his future wife, Melinda Wilson, when he was a customer at a car dealership where she worked in the mid-1980s. At the time, Wilson had for years been under the close supervision of psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy. Melinda and others believed Landy was exploiting and mistreating Wilson, and they feuded with Landy for years before he was barred in 1992 from any contact with Wilson. The couple married in 1995. Melinda Wilson died unexpectedly early this year. Wilson has credited her with stabilizing his famously troubled life, and she had managed his daily life in recent years. “Our five children and I are just in tears. We are lost,” Brian Wilson wrote on his website. “Melinda was more than my wife. She was my savior.” His mental decline and her death led Brian Wilson’s management team to petition the court in February to place him under a conservatorship. The loss of a spouse in such circumstances is a common trigger for such legal arrangements. The petition sought only a conservatorship of Wilson’s person, saying he doesn’t need a conservator over his finances because his assets are in a trust, with manager Hard as a trustee. A doctor’s declaration said Wilson has a “major neurocognitive disorder,” is taking medication for dementia, and “is unable to properly provide for his own personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter.” Wilson can move around with help from a walker and the caregiver, court-appointed attorney Robert Frank Cipriano wrote in a report. He said Wilson has a good sense of who he is, where he is, and when it is, but could not name his children beyond the two who live with him. In approving the petition, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gus T. May said the evidence shows that Wilson consented to the arrangement and lacks the capacity to make health care decisions. WHAT IMPACT DID THE #FREEBRITNEY MOVEMENT HAVE ON CONSERVATORSHIPS? Some fans objected to Spears’ conservatorship soon after it began. But the movement and the #FreeBritney hashtag truly took off in early 2019, when some believed she was being forced into a psychiatric hospital against her will. The fans pored over her social media posts to extract clues about her wellbeing and protested outside the courthouse at every hearing. Spears’ father and others had long dismissed these fans as conspiracy theorists, but their influence on Spears’ case was undeniable in the end and she credited them for her success. In 2022, California lawmakers revised the state’s statute to require judges to document all alternatives to a conservatorship before granting one. The update, which took effect last year, gained traction amid the #FreeBritney movement. Advocacy groups contended that people like Spears can become trapped in a system that strips them of their civil rights and the ability to advocate for themselves. Several other states, including New Jersey, New Mexico and Oregon, have used the attention that Spears and her followers brought to the issue to alter their own conservatorship laws. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

SANDY, Utah (AP) — Search crews on Friday recovered the bodies of two backcountry skiers who were swept away and buried by an avalanche in the mountains outside Salt Lake City a day earlier, officials said. The men — 23-year-old Andrew Cameron of Utah and 32-year-old Austin Mallet of Montana — were killed in the snowslide Thursday morning in the area of Lone Peak in the Wasatch Range southeast of the city. Officials declined to release their hometowns. Search teams uncovered the men’s bodies Friday morning, Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said. The bodies were brought off the mountain via helicopter and taken to the medical examiner’s office, Sgt. Aymee Race with the Unified Police Salt Lake City said. Storms on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday brought up to 3 feet (1 meter) of heavy, wet snow and strong winds to the area. “And that instantly ramped up the avalanche danger,” said Craig Gordon, an avalanche forecaster with the U.S. Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center. “The other factor that complicated weather and snow conditions is that it’s spring and weather patterns and weather systems can change very quickly in the mountains,” he said. A day could start off sunny and clear before giving way to clouds or snow or strong winds. “And all of these factors can influence the dynamic nature of the snowpack and can escalate the avalanche danger,” Gordon said Friday. The three men were climbing up a ridge on a slope called Big Willow Aprons and were near the top when the slide was unintentionally triggered, the avalanche center said in its preliminary report. The first climber was carried downhill on the right side of the ridge and partially buried. He was able to dig himself out, call for help and was rescued by midday Thursday. Race said they would not be releasing his name. Cameron and Mallet were swept away on the left side of the ridge and buried, the center said. Weather and snow conditions prevented their recovery on Thursday. “We know that’s hard on the families when you have to leave somebody up there,” said Alan Bergstrom, one of eight rescuers who recovered the bodies. Family members of the two victims were at the search staging area near Sandy on Thursday and Friday, Rivera said. “There are situations such as today where we may know the people that are on the mountain,” making the recovery effort difficult for searchers as well, said Bergstrom, a squad leader with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team. Crews “were able to dig pretty quickly and get ’em out and get back on the helicopters,” Bergstrom said. “But as we were finishing up, the winds were picking up and the helicopter was starting to have a little bit of trouble judging the landing spot.” The three men, who were friends, didn’t plan to ski down the face where the avalanche occurred, but they planned to ski in several other locations on Thursday, Gordon said. The snow broke about 2 feet (61 centimeters) deep and 250 feet (76 meter) across and slid down about 500 feet (152 meters), the avalanche center said. The area where the avalanche occurred, Lone Peak, is one of the highest peaks in the Wasatch Range towering over Utah’s capital city. Its steep, rugged terrain makes it a popular destination for advanced backcountry skiers, while experienced climbers scale its sheer granite walls in the warmer months. “This is very serious terrain. It’s steep. It’s north-facing. The crew that was up there would have to be experienced,” Gordon said Thursday. Rivera confirmed the men were experienced skiers. The fatalities bring this winter’s tally of avalanche deaths in the U.S. to 15, according to the Utah Avalanche Information Center. An average of 30 people die in avalanches each year in the U.S. ___ Hanson reported from Helena, Montana. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — With the start of hurricane season less than a month away, U.S. officials who predict, prepare for and respond to natural disasters had a message for Floridians on Friday: It’s not a matter of if a hurricane will hit, but when. The 2024 hurricane season is expected to be busier than average. To ensure that people everywhere are prepared, officials visited residents in Sanford, a landlocked city in the middle of the Sunshine State. Even if they don’t live on the coast, the officials told residents, they need to know the potential danger hurricanes pose to their property, such as flooding; and put together an emergency plan that includes a supply kit. “Everybody in Florida is at risk,” said Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center. As if to punctuate Florida’s vulnerability to damaging weather, wind gusts of 71 mph (114 kph), just shy of hurricane force, were recorded early Friday in Tallahassee, where mangled metal and other debris from damaged buildings littered parts of the state’s capital city. The officials in Sanford brought along two “hurricane hunter” planes used in the daredevil business of flying into the middle of storms to gather data about their intensity and direction. The WP-3D, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the WC-130J, flown by the U.S. Air Force Reserve, fly straight into the storms’ eyewall, usually three times during a flight. The aim of the hair-raising trips is to gather information that can help officials on the ground make decisions such as when to order people to evacuate. NOAA’s propeller plane typically has 11 to 17 people on board during flights through hurricanes, including the crew and scientists. Since flights usually last eight hours, the crew members bring plenty of snack food, and there is a microwave, refrigerator and a hot plate for cooking more elaborate meals. Although the rides can be very bumpy, sometimes they aren’t as turbulent as expected and crew members don’t realize that they already are in the eye of a hurricane, said William Wysinger, a NOAA flight engineer who has flown on a dozen missions through hurricanes. “I liken it to riding an old wooden roller coaster during the worst of times,” Wysinger said. The National Hurricane Center is predicting that the upcoming Atlantic and Gulf season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, will exceed the yearly average of seven tropical storms and seven hurricanes, and that three of the storms will be major. Not all hurricanes make landfall. Floridians would be wise to remember 20 years ago when four hurricanes made landfall consecutively in just a matter of weeks, crisscrossing the state and carving paths of disaster, said David Sharp, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida. “Many remember the ravages of the Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne — blue tarps and pink insulation everywhere, along with displaced lives,” Sharp said. “Scars upon the land but also scars upon the psyche of our people.” Hundreds of thousands of new residents have arrived in Florida since the last hurricane season, and it’s important that they know what to expect and how to prepare, said Robbie Berg, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center. “Talk to your neighbors,” Berg said. “A lot of people in Florida have experienced these storms and they can help you through a storm if you’ve never been through one before.” ___ Follow Mike Schneider on X: @MikeSchneiderAP. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com