A Maine man was shot and killed in a possible road rage incident in Pennsylvania early Saturday morning, authorities said.

Pennsylvania State Police said Timothy Davison of Poland was shot in the median of Interstate 81 after his sport utility vehicle was run off the road shortly after 2 a.m. by a man driving a pickup truck. Davison, 28, died shortly after the shooting, at York Hospital in Pennsylvania.

The incident began in Maryland, where Davison called 911 to report that someone in a pickup truck – possibly a Ford Ranger – was following him and shooting at him, said Trooper Robert Hicks of the Pennsylvania State Police. Davison was headed north on I-81 at the time and the fatal shooting took place in Antrim Township, Pa., about three miles north of the Maryland-Pennsylvania border.

Because he was in Maryland, Davison’s 911 call went to Maryland State Police, Hicks said. A trooper at Maryland State Police barracks in Hagerstown, Md., about 10 miles south of the where the shooting took place, confirmed that Maryland police received a 911 call from Davison, but referred all other questions to Pennsylvania authorities.

Hicks said police assume the shooting began in Maryland. He said police don’t know what sparked the confrontation between Davison and the person or people in the pickup.

According to Pennsylvania State Police, Davison’s SUV was rammed by the pickup, forced off the road and then became disabled. They said someone from the pickup then approached Davison’s vehicle and fired several rounds at him.

Davison’s father, also named Timothy Davison, said Saturday night that his son was returning from a trip to Florida to visit his grandfather, uncle and sister. He was taking I-81 to avoid traffic on I-95, said his father, who lives in Raymond. He said he last spoke to his son Friday afternoon when he was driving through Georgia and had expected him to return to Maine on Saturday.

Police told him that his son called 911 in Maryland to report that a pickup was pursuing him and someone in the truck was firing shots, the elder Davison said, but the call was dropped when he crossed the border into Pennsylvania. He called 911 again, the elder Davison said, and reached Pennsylvania police, but the call was connected right around the time that his son’s SUV was forced off the road and he was shot.

“He was a great kid,” Davison said of his son, who worked for his father’s company, Engineered Construction Services in Raymond. His son did fabrication work and installations and was a foreman and supervisor, the elder Davison said.

“He was the smartest (one) I had on the crew,” the father said. “He could see the vision and he could build it.”

His son went to school in Arizona to learn how to be a motorcycle mechanic before returning to Maine to work for him a few years ago, the elder Davison said.

Hicks said Saturday night that police are looking for a Ford Ranger-style pickup, possibly blue, with damage on the driver’s side. He said police had no leads on the pickup Saturday night and hadn’t gotten any calls from other drivers that might shed light on what was behind the incident.

Hicks also noted that authorities haven’t determined officially that it was a case of road rage.

Although the attack has the hallmarks of a road rage case, Hicks said, “We’re just beginning our investigation and we don’t know if there was a history between these two” beyond their both being on the same stretch of highway at the same time.

Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com