The man called 911 at 2:07 a.m. and told police he had fought with his wife and she was now dead.
Some 20 minutes later in the early morning of Aug. 29, police in Maine located the man on the Piscataqua River Bridge, which links Maine and New Hampshire.
The man – whose name has not been released – was parked on the southbound side in Kittery, Maine, according to Maine State Police.
The so-called High Rise Bridge was shut down in both directions “for several hours” while law enforcement in both states tried to negotiate with the man, but attempts ended with him getting out of his car and raising a firearm, police said.
Three state troopers – one from Maine and two from New Hampshire – shot back, striking the man, who fell into the river below.
Law enforcement later recovered his body from the water, and he was declared dead at the scene.
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Accessing the man’s car, police found an 8-year-old child – whose name has not been released – fatally shot in the backseat, which Maine State Police say was not connected to the officer-involved shooting.
New Hampshire State Police found a woman – whose name has not been released – dead inside a residence in Troy, N.H., where the man had directed law enforcement that his wife could be found.
“They’re family: husband, wife and child,” Maine State Police Col. William Ross told Maine’s WMTW TV.
Investigators believe the man killed his wife “overnight” and then took off on Interstate 95, according to the New Hampshire Department of Justice, which noted in a press release issued later that day that “the exact circumstances surrounding this incident remain under active investigation.”
In accordance with standard protocol, the Maine Attorney General’s Office is investigating the officer’s use of deadly force, and the three troopers are on administrative leave pending those findings, according to Maine State Police and New Hampshire’s Department of Justice.
The Major Crimes divisions of both state police troops, as well as both attorney general’s offices are investigating the case.
