Maine Man Holds Ex-Girlfriend's Family Hostage By Rigging House With Explosives

A hostage situation in Maine has ended with one man dead.

The dramatic 17-hour stand-off kicked off on Monday, when suspect Donald White broke into a home in Livermore Falls.

Four people were inside the house at the time, but one managed to escape and alert the police.

Maine State Police Tactical Team, hostage negotiators and law enforcement from neighboring New Hampshire and Massachusetts were summoned in a massive police response — as was the bomb squad when it emerged they were dealing with possible explosive devices.

Surrounding homes and businesses were evacuated; Livermore Falls fire station had to set up temporary accommodation at its base to house those displaced.

Reacting to reports the suspect had placed a bomb in a local school, Spruce Mountain School District Superintendent made the decision to close the school down too.

On Tuesday evening, 17 hours after the ordeal started, a police officer shot and killed the suspect, and the three hostages were rescued unharmed.

The bomb squad then had to deal with "multiple explosive devices" that had been left in the home.

One of the freed hostages, Kenny Smith, confirmed to reporters afterwards that White was his daughter Amie's ex boyfriend, and that he had previously lived at that home for a period of time.

"When he broke in, he came right into my bedroom," he said, describing the ordeal. "It was about 2:30 in the morning, and I thought I heard a noise."

"Then I woke up, he turned the light on and he says, 'just go along with it.'"

"He zip tied me," he continued, his voice cracking. "He was my daughter's boyfriend, old boyfriend."

'He tasered me... he had some kind of a gun. I don't know what it was. He took three shots. I could see powder come out of the end... I got a big slash," he said pointing to a wound on his leg. "It was just a hell of a night."

He did not say if his daughter was one of the hostages.

The officer who fired the lethal shot has been placed on paid administrative leave, as is standard practice, while the Maine Attorney General's Office investigates the incident.