HARTLAND — Police shot and killed a Hartland man Wednesday morning while executing a search warrant at his home at 98 Main St., authorities said.

Around 5:30 a.m., investigators with the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office were executing the warrant at the residence of Isaac Robinson, the agency said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon.

“Police announced their presence and entered the residence,” the statement said. “After entering the residence, police encountered Mr. Robinson in his bedroom. Mr. Robinson had a knife and came toward the deputies. The deputies issued commands for Mr. Robinson to drop the weapon.”

Robinson continued toward the deputies and did not follow those commands, the statement said. Detective Michael Lyman and Deputy William Crawford then shot him.

Robinson, 44, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Lyman and Crawford have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard protocol when officers are involved in incidents in which they used deadly force.

The Office of the Maine Attorney General is investigating the police shooting. The Maine State Police is investigating the “underlying criminal conduct.”

There was a heavy police presence at the residence Wednesday morning as investigators from several agencies, including the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, the Maine State Police Evidence Response Team and the Office of the Maine Attorney General, worked at the scene.

Those at the scene said the Attorney’s General Office was leading the investigation but were otherwise tight-lipped.

Anna Love, the office’s chief of investigations, declined to provide any more details about the nature of the investigation while at house, saying more information would be provided in the statement issued later in the day.

Reached via telephone earlier in the morning, Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office said he was on scene, but deferred to the Attorney General’s Office to answer further questions.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, Danna Hayes, did not respond to an inquiry Wednesday morning.

The home sits right in downtown, next to the post office and near the intersection of several main roads. 

At least one of the house’s windows appeared broken and boarded up with wood, and a sign on the side door reads “Beware of dog.” Several bags of trash were piled up by the door and two older pickup trucks were parked in the driveway.

A woman working at an establishment nearby said the home has become known to locals as a site of suspected illegal drug activity. People go in and out of the house frequently, according to the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Judy, because of her employer’s policy about speaking with the news media while at work.

Police were already at the scene when she arrived to work, and at one point an ambulance was present, she said.

About three months ago, she said she called the police after hearing shots fired at the house, around 2 p.m.