CAMDEN — Joe Piasecki of Myrtle Beach, S.C., was inside the Camden Rite Aid Pharmacy in search of a bottle of cold drinking water Monday night just before 7:30 when a gunman entered the store and told all the customers and staff to leave except for one of the pharmacists.

"I never had a shotgun pointed at me before, or any gun for that matter," said Piasecki. "It was scary."

Piasecki was a guest of the Hartstone Inn Monday night. The Hartstone's main building is separated from the Rite Aid building by a common driveway.

Following dinner at the Waterfront Restaurant and a stroll back up through downtown, Piasecki said he decided to drop into the Rite Aid for a bottle of water before heading back to the inn next door. He said as he walked in the front door, the only person he noticed was an employee behind the front counter.

"I walked all the way to the back to grab a bottle of water, and I just started to open the cooler and I guess it must have been the pharmacist, maybe it wasn't, but a woman said, 'Leave the store now, he's got a gun,'" said Piasecki. "Just then, I turned around to start leaving the store and he came around the corner about two aisles down, a shotgun pointed right at me."

The man Piasecki was talking about was Robert Beerman, 34, of Camden. After clearing the store, Beerman held a female pharmacist hostage inside for approximately 3-1/2 hours. He let the hostage go, and she was seen by other Hartstone Inn guests running out the back door toward tactical team officers around 11 p.m. Police were able to maintain visual contact with Beerman until around 1:45 a.m., but when he disappeared from view and did not answer police demands to come out, the decision was made to break through the front door. Inside, officers found Beerman dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the back employee's break area.

Piasecki said that when confronted by Beerman, the man had no expression on his face.

"When I saw the shotgun pointed at me, I was like, oooohhh God," said Piasecki. "And with a stone face, he just said, 'Leave the store.'"

"I go, "Sure thing," turned down the aisle and went right out and he was right behind me the whole way. I was afraid to look, I didn't look back. I just kept my eyes forward and walked, and he followed in back of me to make sure I got out," said Piasecki.

Piasecki said he stood outside the front door with a male employee and they stopped other, unsuspecting people from going inside.

"We stopped probably about four or five people from going into the store and told them to stay out and that's when I called 911," said Piasecki.

Within about five minutes, there were as many as eight officers guarding the front and back entrances of the Rite Aid. Camden police were joined by officers from Rockland and Rockport, Knox County Sheriff's Office and Maine State Police, including the state tactical team and a state negotiator. Eventually, that contingent would grow to include officers with the FBI, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the State Fire Marshal's Office. Route 1 traffic through downtown Camden was rerouted around downtown, and a wide area around the store was cordoned off.

While police were setting up and taking positions around the Rite Aid building, Piasecki said he made his way back into the inn, where he told everybody there what was happening outside and what happened to him.

"I stood around and talked to people here at the inn, then I told them, 'I don't know if there is a back door to this place, but you might want to lock it up,'" said Piasecki. "And then I was telling the owner what happened, and they fixed me a drink. My heart was beating so fast, you know? It's just shocking."

Piasecki finally went to bed, in his room overlooking Elm Street and the front of the Rite Aid and all the police activity, when he said he was woken up at 2:30 a.m.

"I was woken up by the loudspeaker out there, saying 'Robbie, come out with your hands up or answer the phone. Nothing in your hands. This is the State Police. You're under arrest,'" said Piasecki. "After no response, that's when I saw the battering ram hit the front door."

Many of the Hartstone's guests Monday night, either for dinner, overnight accommodations or both, wandered into the inn's parlor for coffee Tuesday morning and were talking about the overnight events. Piasecki said he hails from a small town in upstate New York, so he understands that this isn’t normal, even though this is his first time in Camden.”

“I told my wife what happened, and then I told her how beautiful it is here, and that I’ll have to bring her back some time,” said Piasecki. A sales representative for Pioneer Balloon, headquartered in Wichita, Kan., Piasecki said he is spending Tuesday installing a balloon program at the Camden Hannaford grocery store.

“We are installing the program in 40 stores,” said Piasecki. “We divided up the stores and I took the 10 on the coast. After tomorrow, I’ll head to Machias and Bar Harbor.”

Another couple, like Piasecki, had been away from the inn, walking around and/or dining elsewhere, when the standoff began. And when they arrived back and found police tape and heavily armed police officers training their attention on the building next door, they wondered how to get back inside, if they could.

"One person told us to go through the back, and we thought, climb around the backyard?" said a guest. Contrary to other reports, police cleared a restaurant adjacent to the Rite Aid, but did not evacuate the inn. And all the guests eventually made their way back inside the inn.

The motive for Beerman's decision to enter the Rite Aid and do what he did overnight remains unclear Tuesday. State negotiators made contact with Beerman during the standoff, but the peaceful resolution Camden Police Chief Randy Gagne had hoped for following the release of the hostage an hour before midnight did not pan out. Gagne said that the incident remains under investigation.

Beerman was arrested by Camden police last month, accused of breaking into Cuzzy's, a Bay View Street restaurant and bar, at 3:30 a.m.

Related story:

• Camden Rite Aid robbery suspect found dead, hostage released

Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards can be reached at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com or 706-6655.