From Brutal Assault to Manhunt: Mooreside Arrested After Tip Leads Police to Woods
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BAR HARBOR—Ryan Mooreside, who was sentenced in 2022 to seven years in prison with all but three years suspended for attacking a Bar Harbor man in December 2019, was the cause of a manhunt in Dover-Foxcroft in mid-July and appeared in court last week.
The arrest didn’t come as a surprise to Grady Dobbs of Bar Harbor, who had been attacked by Mooreside in 2019 in a local parking lot.
“Ryan Mooreside was someone who showed up to Bar Harbor one day and helped to make our community a more dangerous place,” Dobbs said this weekend.
Mooreside, 36, is currently listed as living in Shapleigh. He, and co-defendant Dilan McDougal, 32, of Orrington face felony charges after police were called to Country Meadows Lane for a disturbance, July 18.
The police, upon arrival, learned that one of the men had been “involved in an incident in the Bangor area earlier that morning,” according to the Dover-Foxcroft press release.
The police then determined that the men involved and who were occupying the Country Meadows Lane Apartment Complex were Mooreside and McDougal.
“Given the nature of the offenses and the subjects’ criminal backgrounds, the Maine State Police Tactical Team was requested to execute the warrant,” the press release said. “However, prior to execution, Mooreside, McDougal, and a female associate had left the apartment.”
Much later in the day, police officers went to an Irving gas station on West Main Street in the town “for a report of a possible hostage situation.” They arrested McDougal there. Mooreside had fled with a woman. The police considered him “armed and dangerous.”
The Dover-Foxcroft officers searched with the state police tactical team and could not locate Mooreside. However, on July 19, a tip brought them to a location between the Piscataquis River and West Main Street. In that wooded area, they found Mooreside and a women whose name was not disclosed. He was taken into custody without incident, the department reported.
He has been charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, and is being held due to an alleged probation violation. There are additional charges expected.
In 2019, Mooreside was one of two men who attacked Dobbs in Bar Harbor. That attack sent Dobbs to the hospital for blunt force trauma.
“He always had his eyes on me … maybe it was jealousy or hate,” Dobbs said. “I don’t know, but I do know that he wanted to try and hurt me long before all this stuff had happened. The night that he attempted to bludgeon me to death with a couple of his friends, I think he was too scared to do it alone. He used the element of surprise in his favor, and I think he intended to destroy me both physically and mentally, but what this incident has done has made me a stronger man.”
Mooreside was charged with elevated aggravated assault for that attack. Dobbs had severe lacerations to his head and facial injuries. A Bucksport man was also charged and indicted for two counts of elevated aggravated assault, three counts of aggravated assault, reckless conduct and assault, related to the incident, but those charges were dismissed. Mooreside also had to pay restitution.
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