The Office of the Maine Attorney General has ruled that three deputies from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office acted in self-defense when they fired at a Harrison man during an armed confrontation in November.

Several officers were dispatched to a house on Hawk Ridge Road in Harrison the afternoon Arthur Lefebvre, 57, called police and threatened to shoot himself, according to the report from the Office of the Maine Attorney General. Lefebvre walked around the house with firearms while officers were staging outside, demanding that officers shoot him, the report noted.

While officers were attempting negotiations, Lefebvre had fired a single shot out of a second-story window. Later, an officer reported seeing him point another handgun out of a window and heard a gunshot, “but did not know by whom, or where it came from,” the report states.

The report said that Lefebvre eventually exited the home holding a long gun and a handgun. He reportedly ignored commands to drop the weapons while walking toward Deputy Brandon Pelton, as well as Detectives Nathan Therriault and Tyler Monsees. All three fired at Lefebvre when he began to move his right arm in front of him, the report says.

“He had made suicidal and homicidal statements, fired twice, refused commands to drop the guns and was walking directly towards the officers in the woods, whose only cover were the trees,” Attorney General Aaron Frey wrote in the report. “It was only when he began raising his firearm in the direction of the officers that the officers shot him.”

Investigators later found that Lefebvre was holding a pistol and a BB gun. They also located ammunition, two shell casings, two long guns and a pistol in and near the house, the report states.

The officers told investigators that they fired because “they believed that Mr. Lefebvre was about to shoot them or other nearby officers,” according to the report. All three were placed on administrative leave, which is standard practice, while the attorney general investigates the use of deadly force. The office hasn’t found a police shooting unjustified since at least 1990.

Sheriff Kevin Joyce said in an interview on Monday that the officers returned from administrative leave between late January and early February. He said they had used “great restraint” despite the threats made to them. The officers could not be reached for comment Monday.

Lefebvre was hospitalized with serious injuries following the shooting. He was arrested in January and faces charges related to the incident, including reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon.