Police say 22-year-old Maliyah Powell died after a gunshot wound early Friday, and a 25-year-old woman was arrested the same day.
LEWISTON, ME — A 25-year-old Lewiston woman has been charged with murder after a shooting on Union Street early Friday left 22-year-old Maliyah Powell dead, according to Maine State Police, which said the 911 call came in at about 1:26 a.m.
The case quickly moved from an overnight emergency call to a homicide investigation that drew in state detectives, local officers and the medical examiner’s office. Authorities say Powell was found with a gunshot wound, taken to Central Maine Medical Center and later pronounced dead. By Friday evening, state police said Elise Bergeron of Lewiston had been arrested and booked into the Androscoggin County Jail on a murder charge, while investigators continued to sort out what happened on the short street near downtown.
According to state police, the Lewiston-Auburn Communications Center received a report of a shooting shortly after 1:25 a.m. Friday on Union Street. Lewiston police officers were sent first and then asked for help from the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit South. Officers found Powell wounded at the scene and rushed her to Central Maine Medical Center, a hospital just across from that part of Union Street. She later died there. Her body was then taken to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta for an autopsy. State police spokeswoman Shannon Moss said the examination found Powell died from a gunshot wound and ruled the death a homicide. Investigators worked through the morning and into the day, gathering evidence, examining the area and tracing the events that led to the shooting before announcing Bergeron’s arrest later Friday.
Authorities have released only a narrow set of details about the encounter itself. Police have not publicly said what led to the shooting, whether the women knew each other, where exactly on Union Street the gun was fired, or whether anyone else was present when officers arrived. They also have not said what firearm was used or whether it has been recovered. What is clear from the public record is the speed of the investigation. The emergency call came in at 1:26 a.m., local officers reached the scene, and state police were asked to take part as the case shifted into a homicide inquiry. Bergeron, 25, was arrested as a result of that investigation and taken to the Androscoggin County Jail. No court affidavit laying out probable cause had been released publicly by Sunday, leaving major questions about motive, witness accounts and the final moments before the shooting unanswered.
The shooting happened on a small street off Main Street in Lewiston, across from Central Maine Medical Center and close to one of the city’s busiest corridors. The location put the crime scene in a dense part of downtown where police activity is highly visible and where investigators in marked jackets and cruisers spent hours processing evidence. The case also arrives in a city still sharply sensitive to serious gun violence after the mass shooting in Lewiston in October 2023 transformed public life and law enforcement response across the region. This case is separate from that attack, but any homicide involving a firearm draws immediate attention in a community that remains alert to such violence. In the public statements released so far, officials have stuck to the basic facts and have not tied Friday’s shooting to any broader threat. They have, however, treated the death as a major case from the start, assigning the state police major crimes unit to handle the investigation with help from Lewiston police.
Records cited by local news outlets add another layer of scrutiny around the defendant. Bergeron was previously sentenced in federal court to two years of probation in January 2025 after pleading guilty to making false statements to a federal law enforcement officer in a gun-running case that linked Maine and California. Under those probation terms, local reporting said, she was barred from possessing firearms or other dangerous weapons. That earlier case is not part of the homicide charge now filed in Androscoggin County, and prosecutors have not publicly described any connection between the two matters beyond Bergeron’s identity. The immediate criminal case now centers on the murder charge filed Friday. Court appearances, including an initial appearance and later hearings on bail, evidence and scheduling, are expected to begin in state court. Investigators have said the homicide inquiry remains active and ongoing, which usually means detectives are still interviewing witnesses, reviewing evidence and waiting on additional forensic results before deciding whether more charges or filings are warranted.
By Friday morning, the scene on Union Street had become a focal point for neighbors, commuters and hospital traffic nearby as officers blocked off the area and forensic investigators moved in and out of the street. Photographs published by local outlets showed law enforcement personnel gathering evidence and examining at least one vehicle connected to the scene. The public message from police stayed measured. Moss said the arrest came “as a result of the investigation,” while urging anyone with information to contact state police. That phrasing underscored how much of the case remains outside public view as detectives build a timeline from witness statements, physical evidence and autopsy findings. For Powell’s family and the people who live nearby, the day’s visible police work marked only the first stage of a case likely to move slowly through court. For now, the known facts remain stark: a young woman was shot in Lewiston before dawn, died at a nearby hospital, and another Lewiston woman now faces a murder charge.
The case remained open Sunday, with Bergeron held after her arrest and state police continuing to investigate Powell’s killing. The next public milestone is expected to come in court filings or a hearing in the days ahead, when prosecutors may lay out more of the evidence behind the charge.
Author note: Last updated March 22, 2026.