While police continue to investigate the alleged road rage killing last weekend of a Maine man in Pennsylvania, friends of 28-year-old Timothy Davison remember him as someone who could always be counted on to help anyone in need.
“I had the most crazy, fun times of my life with that guy,” said Theresa Hemond of Minot, who dated Davison in 2009. Since then, the two remained good friends, she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had such a hard time with someone dying as this.”
Davison of Poland was gunned down at about 2 a.m. Saturday along Interstate 81 in Franklin County, Pa., according to Pennsylvania State Police. State and local police in that state have formed a multi-unit task force with representatives from the FBI and Maryland State Police to hunt down the unidentified assailant.
Davison described the attack to 911 operators before dying from his wounds, state police said. He told dispatchers that a Ford Ranger-style vehicle was following him and that one of the occupants was firing a weapon at him. The suspect then reportedly rammed Davison’s vehicle off the road and fired several rounds into it. The incident occurred just north of the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line.
Hemond said Davison, whose middle name was Austin, was known as “Asti” to his friends.
“No one ever called him ‘Timothy,’” she recalled Tuesday. “He was the type of person who did not worry about the past and there was no future, every day was its own adventure [and] no one else lived his life like Asti did.”
Hemond said the last time she saw her friend was about two months ago when he dropped in late one night to the Village Inn in Auburn, where she works.
“I had just posted a picture [on Facebook] of the empty bar and he showed up 10 minutes before closing time,” she said. “He ordered a soup and ate his soup, he ordered dinner and ate his dinner — and mind you, we were closed by this time.”
Before leaving, Davison talked Hemond into splitting the cost of his dessert out of her tip jar.
“I am so glad he came in and I have that memory now,” Hemond said.
She also recalled a river trip down the Saco River a few years ago with her friend.
“We were a bunch of friends camping out, being eaten alive by bugs but it was a blast,” she said. “No matter what was going on, you were going to have fun if Asti was there.”
Nick Colby, Davison’s childhood friend, also was on that river trip and is now left coping with the loss.
“It is just so hard for us to believe this happened,” Colby said. “Asti was just the most reliable guy I knew, really one of a kind.”
The two men remained close after graduating together from Poland Regional High School in 2003 and once shared an Auburn apartment together.
“He was the best friend you could ask for [and] you could call him anytime and he’d come from anywhere at the drop of a hat to come get you,” Colby said. “There are not many people like that and it’s tough to lose one.”
Looking back on those Saco River trips, Colby said it seemed that Davison was always the one most prepared with food and beverages.
“If you ran out of hamburger or anything, Asti was always the one to share,” Colby said. “But he’d always grumble a bit and say, ‘I can’t believe I am doing this again.’ Man, he was just great like that.”
At the same time, Colby said Davison was a man who remained true to himself and always stood up for his friends.
“He was unpredictable but reliable,” Hemond said. “You never really knew where he’d be or what he’d be doing, but if you needed him, he’d be right there.”
She remembered Davison as also being the kind of guy people wanted to hang around.
“This sounds cliche, but he had this laugh that was so contagious,” she said. “When you heard it, you knew just who it was and you wanted to be there to see what was going on.”
Davison also had a reputation among his friends for not backing down, so Colby and Hemond suspect their friend tried to survive to the end on that stretch of road in Pennsylvania.
“Asti was never scared,” Colby said. “It’s just really hard to imagine what he was going through.”
Hemond agreed.
“I keep going over in my head what happened to him,” she said. “He did not take [anything] from anyone and always stuck up for his younger siblings and his friends.”
Pennsylvania authorities believe that someone in that state or Maryland knows who may be responsible for the crime, and are asking whether the general public knows anyone with violent tendencies who owns or operates a Ranger-style vehicle to contact 1-800-4PA-TIPS.
Meanwhile, his friends say the loss of Davison has left a huge hole in their lives, but they are moving forward with his memory in their hearts.
“Asti was never one to hold a grudge and he had so many layers to him and was so good to people,” Hemond said.
And it’s that goodness Colby hopes people remember.
“How best to honor his memory?” Colby said. “Go climb a mountain and drink a beer and sit and enjoy the view. That’s what Asti would want.”
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