The man arrested after a fatal shooting at a Biddeford apartment building Tuesday was a tenant there and the victim was his landlord, who had previously tried to evict him, according to court records.

Biddeford police responded to a 911 call at the apartment building on Union Street just after 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Shannon Moss, a spokeswoman for the Maine State Police, said they found 31-year-old Douglas Michaud dead on the front porch when they arrived. Police later arrested Randal J. Hennessey, 30, for being a fugitive from justice at 8 p.m. in Durham, New Hampshire. He was booked at the Strafford County Jail.

Randal Hennessey

An affidavit filed in New Hampshire said police believe Hennessey fled the scene of the shooting on a dirt bike and rode along the train tracks from Biddeford to New Hampshire. Law enforcement had been in contact with him on a cellphone, the document says, and he agreed to surrender himself at a location in Durham.

Hennessey appeared in court Wednesday in New Hampshire and waived extradition. He was returned to Maine to face a murder charge and is currently being held at the York County Jail. It is not clear when he will have his first hearing in Maine. A background check shows he has prior convictions in Maine, including felony burglaries, but none since 2016.

Local and state police spent hours into the night on the residential street Tuesday, but most were gone Wednesday morning. No one answered the doorbells at the white, three-story building where the shooting took place. Scraps of police tape dotted the grass near a neat flower bed with a red rose bush.

A complaint filed in Biddeford District Court in January 2020 hints at tension between the two men. The documents show Hennessey and a woman who also lived in the apartment received a notice to quit in November 2019. When they did not leave, Michaud began the eviction process. The complaint doesn’t go into detail but says Hennessey was behind on rent and had violated the terms of the lease.

But the parties reached an agreement in January 2020, and the eviction case was continued for months. A judge then dismissed the complaint in September 2020. No new documents had been entered in the file in the year since. On Wednesday, one of the mailboxes at the building still bore Hennessey’s last name.

Property records show Michaud bought the three-unit building in 2017.

A GoFundMe created Wednesday revealed that the victim’s girlfriend is pregnant with their son and asked friends to support the family. By 6 p.m., it had already raised more than $12,000, surpassing its goal. Friends also posted on Facebook about organizing a benefit in Michaud’s memory.

A woman who lives on the street but did not want to give her name to a reporter Wednesday said the neighborhood is in shock. She said their block is a safe one, and she remembered Michaud as a person who was willing to help others.

“So sweet, so about making this a wonderful neighborhood for everybody,” she said.

She said the tragedy will forever change the families involved.

“Everyone’s ruined,” she said.