Authorities: Man dies in police-involved shooting; 8-year-old child was not killed by police

By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org

KITTERY, Maine — Maine State Police stressed at an afternoon news conference that an 8-year-old child found dead in the back seat of a car near the scene of a fatal shooting early Thursday was not shot by police.

The child's father was on the I-95 bridge into New Hampshire. After negotiations with him failed, the man raised a gun and Maine and New Hampshire police shot him dead just hours after he reported killing his wife in Troy, NH.

The three people killed in the incident were all members of the same family, said Colonel William Ross of the Maine State Police at the press conference. Their identities were not disclosed.

Ross led a news conference in Kittery on Thursday afternoon and indicated that a Maine state trooper and two New Hampshire state troopers were involved in the shooting, which occurred around 4:30 a.m. on the Maine-New Hampshire border on the Piscataqua River Bridge on I-95.

He said police in York, Maine, received a 911 call after 2:07 a.m. from the man who said he got into an argument with his wife in Troy and she was dead.

New Hampshire State Police responded to the home on Monadnock Street in Troy where a family had recently moved in and found the body of a woman with a gunshot wound. The child who lived there was missing.

Ross said around 2:30 a.m., police were able to trace the man's cellphone to the bridge and found the vehicle stopped on the south side and began “negotiations” with him.

After some time, this failed and the man exited the vehicle with a firearm in his hand. When police intervened, he was shot and his body fell into the river. The U.S. Coast Guard recovered the body almost immediately.

Only after the shooting did police find the body of an eight-year-old child in the car, Ross said.

“I want to stress that this is an ongoing investigation and we cannot provide you with all the details at this time,” Ross said.

He said the man “raised a firearm,” but did not say whether he pointed the gun at the police officers.

All officers involved are currently on leave, as is customary following any officer-involved shooting.

He said the child's fatal injuries were not related to the officers' use of deadly force.

“I want to stress that this death is not related to the use of deadly force by the police officers. I want to stress that the child's death is not related to the use of deadly force by the police officers today. We have information that this is not the case. I just want to make sure that is clear to everyone as they move forward,” Ross said.

He did not say whether the man died from gunshot wounds or from the force of falling into the river, but the man's death was pronounced at the scene of the accident.

He said the Maine State Police and New Hampshire State Police Major Crimes Divisions will investigate the deaths of the woman and child. The Maine Attorney General's office is responsible for the officer-involved shooting of the man.

The incident occurred in the middle of the bridge, which forms the border between New Hampshire and Maine and is an interstate bridge. It remained closed in both directions pending investigation but was reopened at 9:30 a.m.