A 27-year-old state prison inmate hijacked a police cruiser after a court appearance in Belfast on Monday, then crashed it on an Ellsworth street crowded with Christmas shoppers shortly before exchanging gunfire with police and surrendering about an hour later.

Rodney E. Williams was shot in the abdomen by police at the corner of Hancock and Main streets in Ellsworth about 12:45 p.m.

Police were not immediately sure who fired first.

Williams had overpowered a corrections officer escorting him back to prison and taken the officer’s .40-caliber Smith & Wesson automatic pistol, investigators said. State police said he forced the officer out of the cruiser somewhere in the Hancock County town of Penobscot and left him handcuffed to a tree.

Williams apparently lost control of the hijacked cruiser as he entered downtown Ellsworth, running the car into the front of Hancock Travel at 71-73 Main St. Police quickly cornered him near The Grand Auditorium, 165-167 Main St. After being shot, Williams ducked into the Shoegazer store next to the theater.

Four to 12 shots were fired, according to witnesses.

No one else was injured in Ellsworth, police said, but the corrections officer was taken to an area hospital for observation Monday night.

Store owner Kristie Billings said a woman and her child had just left the shoe store when Williams came racing in.

“He was wearing a coat like a sheriff’s coat,” Billings said. “He was holding a gun.”

Billings, 28, was in a stockroom at the rear of the store, putting away shoes, when Williams entered through a curtain that separates the stockroom from the store. She said she thought Williams was going to rob her. Instead, he apparently saw a set of steps behind her that lead to the basement.

“He made a beeline for that and said, ‘Go!'” Billings recalled. She took refuge at a nearby business.

Ellsworth police Lt. Harold Page said one bullet fired by police entered the side window of the shoe store and ricocheted twice off the front windows, while the bullet that hit Williams exited his body and came to rest on a sidewalk.

At one point, Page said, Williams apparently came back upstairs and tried to hide in the suspended ceiling of the store. But he fell through to the floor.

Investigators found the corrections officer’s gun on the shoe store counter.

Williams fired several shots at police, some of which struck vehicles parked on Hancock Street, Page said.

Finally, Hancock County Sheriff William Clark used a cordless phone from atop a Main Street business to call the shoe store and talk Williams out of the shop. Williams pushed the front door open and surrendered about 1:45 p.m.

Williams, believed to be from Trenton, has been serving a drug trafficking sentence at the Maine Correctional Center in South Windham. He was taken to the Waldo County Jail in Belfast on Sunday night for a Monday morning court appearance.

He and another state prisoner, James Moody, 20, of Searsport, were taken to Waldo County Superior Court for an early morning arraignment. Williams’ most recent charges stemmed from a May 19 incident in Winterport in which he allegedly terrorized a woman, according to an affidavit.

After the Belfast court appearance, David Drever, 63, of Jefferson, a part-time Waldo County Jail corrections officer, returned to the jail to drop off some paperwork. The last communication from Drever was at 10:05 a.m., when he left to return both inmates to the South Windham prison.

At some point as the three headed away from Belfast, Williams feigned illness and claimed he was going to vomit, according to Waldo County Chief Deputy Robert Keating. Drever pulled his 2001 Ford cruiser to the side of the road and stood nearby while Williams pretended to throw up.

Late Monday, Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police, said detectives weren’t exactly sure where Drever was forced to pull to the side of the road. It was on Route 3, apparently nearer Augusta than Belfast. Anyone seeing a state police cruiser pulled to the side of Route 3 late Monday morning is encouraged to call the Orono barracks at 1-800-432-7381.

Keating said Moody told him that Williams tackled Drever, overpowering him and ripping his Smith & Wesson automatic from his holster. Pointing the gun at Drever’s head, Williams ordered the officer to drive him to Ellsworth, according to what Moody told Keating.

Keating said the department was unsure whether Williams and Moody were handcuffed during the transport to Windham. They had been shackled during their court appearance, but those shackles were removed at the county jail.

The cruiser reversed direction and began heading toward Hancock County. Investigators surmise that Williams has friends or acquaintances in the Ellsworth area.

Keating said Moody told him that when the cruiser passed through Belfast, Moody asked to be let out, but that Williams refused because “he didn’t want him to rat him out,” Keating said.

When the cruiser reached the town of Penobscot, Williams ordered Drever to turn down a dirt road. After driving a short distance, Williams ordered Drever to stop the car and get out. He then shackled Drever to a tree and drove off.

Moody told authorities that he again asked to be set free and that Williams obliged. When Williams drove off, Moody ran back to Drever and helped free him from the tree. The two men made their way to the Northern Bay Market in Penobscot, where they notified the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department about 12:20 p.m.

The staff at Hancock Travel in Ellsworth had closed the Main Street store for lunch just before Williams and the cruiser barreled into the granite building. No one was injured, but the store had substantial damage.

An off-duty state trooper was shopping with his teenage daughter at the Cozy Cat Gift Shop, two doors down from Hancock Travel, when Williams drove the car into the building.

A clerk at the store said the trooper, who was not identified, bolted from the store and up the street behind Williams. His daughter, shaken and crying, stayed behind until her father returned.

About 20 police officers – local, county and state – quickly surrounded the Shoegazer store, while 20 Ellsworth firefighters blocked off the entire downtown area and helped get people out of harm’s way.

By nightfall, hours after Williams was taken into custody, Ellsworth’s Main Street remained cordoned off to traffic as investigators combed the buildings, the street and sidewalks for evidence.

Some people whose cars were parked on Hancock Street during the shooting were still downtown Monday night, waiting for police to finish processing evidence before they could go home.

“I think we’re going to find when the dust settles that we didn’t [shoot first], that we returned fire,” said Sheriff Clark.

“This is the best you can get: The bad guy got shot and he’ll recover,” Clark said.

Maine State Police will conduct the investigation, according to Clark and Ellsworth Police Chief John DeLeo, because the crime spree spanned two counties and involved four police agencies.

The state Attorney General’s Office will conduct a separate probe into the use of deadly force, DeLeo said.

Williams was taken to Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, then transferred almost immediately to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where he was scheduled to undergo surgery, police said. Williams was still being evaluated Monday evening, according to an EMMC nursing supervisor.

McCausland said no decision had been made regarding possible charges.