BARRYVILLE, NY — Paul Gosselin, a 63-year-old physician from Augusta, Maine, was shot last Tuesday, July 2, by a NYS Trooper in the parking lot of the Il Castello restaurant parking lot in Barryville, according to a state police report.

After troopers rendered first aid, emergency medical technicians transported Gosselin to a local hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

Gosselin is a physician who has been recently disciplined by the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. On October 5, 2023, the Massachusetts board revoked Gosselin’s license to practice medicine “for engaging in conduct which places into question his competence to practice medicine; practicing medicine deceitfully, or engaging in conduct which has the capacity to deceive or defraud; committing misconduct in the practice of medicine; and failing to maintain adequate medical records. Dr. Gosselin was found to have issued COVID-19 exemption letters for five patients without first obtaining their medical histories, obtaining their medical records or consulting with their respective primary care providers and failing to create and maintain adequate medical records.”

According to reporting, Gosselin was first suspended from practicing medicine in November 2021 by the Maine licensing board. His Maine license was reinstituted in 2022, according to Centralmaine.com.

The Town of Highland supervisor, John Pizzolato, who spoke to Gosselin before reporting him to the police, confirmed on Monday that it was the same person.

Trooper Steven Nevel also said on Monday that he was told Gosselin was the same doctor suspended for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. Nevel said Gosselin was taken to Westchester Medical Center, but has not received recent updates. 

Once Gosselin is released from the hospital, he will be taken to Sullivan County Jail, Nevel said.

Highway workers block off NYS Route 97 north of the Il Castello parking lot, at River Road in Barryville, at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.

Supervisor reports a suspicious person

The incident started at about 2:15 p.m. in the parking lot of the Oasis restaurant on NYS Route 97. Troopers were responding to a call about a suspicious person, who, when confronted, “claimed to have a gun and said he would shoot the troopers,” according to the police report. 

Gosselin fled to Il Castello, less than a half-mile away, where he got out of his car. He then got back in his car and started driving toward a Town of Lumberland constable who was on foot on Route 97, the report says.

A trooper on the scene saw Gosselin accelerating towards the constable and discharged rounds at his car, striking Gosselin once.  

The River Reporter’s police scanner narrated the incident, in which a Medivac helicopter was called to a landing field in Shohola, PA, to transport Gosselin to treatment.

Pizzolato, the Highland supervisor, first reported Gosselin to the police. He told the paper on the day of the shooting that he saw a man in a brand-new car with temporary Maine plates in the parking lot of the Oasis restaurant. which he owns, as he walked over from his other business, the Stickett Inn. He saw that the man was distraught and asked him if he needed help. The man asked him, “Do you have a gun?”

Pizzolato said he told the man “no,” and asked what was going on. The man told him, “I’m trying to stay away from guys like you.”

“I don’t know if he had mistaken me for a cop, or what,” Pizzolato said.

The man, later identified as Gosselin, kept staring at Pizzolato in an “unnerving” way, so Pizzolato locked up his business and continued to go about his day. He walked back to the Stickett Inn to get some cleaning supplies and attend to other matters. When he returned to the Oasis, he saw the distraught man still parked outside.

Pizzolato then headed to a meeting at Highland Town Hall with former councilman Chris Tambini and town justice Anthony LaRuffa. He also reported the “sketchy” situation to police.

Pizzolato said he didn’t know whether or not the man had a gun. He said he would be giving his deposition to the police that afternoon.

John Decker posted online that he was on the scene the day of the shooting, and “there was like a 30-minute standoff. Don’t know if they had a gun. But was shot when trying to run through the roadblock.”

Earlier in the day, transportation workers closed the four-corner intersection with Routes 55 and 97. Route 97 was still closed at 6:30 p.m., with a detour set up at River Road, but was open again on Wednesday morning.

There was no one in the restaurant, as Il Castello’s is closed on Tuesdays.

The newspaper Central Maine reported that Gosselin had been listed in a national law enforcement database as a missing person before showing up in Barryville.

Below are two videos that show some of the action that day. At about 30 seconds into the first video (security camera footage supplied by the Oasis restaurant), Gosselin’s red car appears, and then a trooper on foot. Soon after that, a trooper’s cruiser appears and chases after the red car. The two vehicles circle the Oasis gas pumps for a while, until Gosselin pulls up to a pump and then backs out, eventually traveling north on Route 97 in the direction of Il Castello restaurant, with the cruiser following after.

The second video, filmed by a resident, shows Gosselin and troopers in front of Il Castello restaurant, as Gosselin edges his red car off camera.