MEXICO — A Mexico woman and a girl escaped their home last weekend after a man hiding in the basement tried to kill them with a .38-caliber semi-automatic pistol that misfired twice, according to an affidavit by Mexico Police Chief Roy Hodsdon.

Harry David Every Oxford County Jail photo

Harry David Every, 49, was arrested Saturday on eight charges: two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault, domestic violence reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, domestic violence terrorizing with a dangerous weapon, domestic violence criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, burglary and obstructing the report of a crime or injury.

He was arraigned in 11th District Court on Monday and is being held at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset on $250,000 bail.

According to the affidavit, Every broke into the home Saturday and stayed in the basement drinking beer. After midnight, he went upstairs to the woman’s bedroom, struck her on the back of the head with the gun, pushed her head into the pillow and held the gun to her temple, saying he was going to kill her.

When he pulled the trigger the gun misfired so he reloaded the same bullet and pointed it at her again. As she woman pushed him off her, he stood 2 feet away at the foot of the bed and fired again at her face. It misfired a second time, according to the affidavit.

As she tried to get her cellphone and get away, Every loaded another round and fired from 2 to 3 feet away, missing her and hitting the wall, Hodsdon wrote.

“Fearing she is going to be shot,” the woman fell to the floor and covered her head with both hands.

When Every threatened to kill a girl sleeping in the next bedroom, the woman pleaded with him not to and began pounding on the wall and yelling to the girl to wake up and get out.

The girl woke up, came out of her room, pushed Every away from the woman’s bedroom door, which he was holding shut, and told him to stop.

He retreated to the basement.

The woman and girl opened a window in the woman’s bedroom, pushed out the screen and called 911 as they escaped to a friend’s home, according to the affidavit.

Police responded to the home at 1:30 a.m. for a report of a man inside threatening suicide with a firearm, Hodsdon wrote. They contacted Every by cellphone and he advised he “was going to finish his beer and have a chew of tobacco and then he would come out of the residence without his gun.”

After Every came out voluntarily, police first determined there was no one else in the house and then began collecting bullets, shell casings. They found a loaded .38-caliber Jaminex semi-automatic pistol in the basement, along with numerous beer cans and a plastic jug with chewing tobacco spit in it.

Every was taken to the Oxford County Jail in Paris.

Police also interviewed the woman and the girl, saying both feared for their lives.