MANCHESTER, NH – Three people are dead following a tense 12-hour stand-off with police outside the Quality Inn.
What began at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night as a relatively routine warrant check at the hotel, located right off the city’s main business artery, quickly escalated into a deadly stand-off.
The wanted man, Stephen Marshall, 51, of Manchester, was shot after he smashed through a hotel window and confronted a Manchester Police officer and two Drug Enforcement Administration agents outside the hotel.
As described by NH Attorney General Gordon MacDonald, at about the same time the officer and the agents approached the hotel room, Marshall broke through a window in the rear of the hotel and jumped out, fleeing the room.
Both the Manchester police officer and one of the agents discharged their weapons.
“Mr. Marshall was struck by gunfire and was taken to the Elliot Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Two individuals remained in the first-floor room and over the course of more than 12 hours, Manchester Police officers attempted to speak with these individuals and seek a peaceful resolution,” MacDonald said of the police stand-off.
Over the next nine hours, MacDonald said multiple gunshots were fired out of the room toward police.
Shortly after 10 a.m. Nashua SWAT officers, who had relieved Manchester SWAT of duty, entered the hotel room where they discovered a man and a woman, both dead.
More questions than answers were floated during a news conference Thursday afternoon at Manchester Police headquarters after MacDonald’s narrative of the events leading up to the shooting. The identities of the man and woman found dead have not been released pending notification of kin, MacDonald said.
Among the many questions yet to be answered are whether Marshall fired at the law enforcement officers.
“With multiple shots over a long period of time, trying to get to the right sequence is going to take time, and which shot took place when is something we’re trying to figure out,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati said, fielding that question.
As for how the two people inside the hotel room died, Agati said that will be determined by the assistant medical examiner following a full autopsy, which would take 24 to 48 hours. Toxicology reports could take up to 60 days, he said, when asked if either of the two dead had overdosed on drugs.
When asked whether police deployed “flash-bangs” or chemical agents, and whether those tactics caused the deaths of the two in the room, Agati said he did not have a full report on the events, and that those answers will take more time.
“At this point we just don’t know the cause of death,” Agati said. “I can say police were diligent in using every technique that was available to them in order to try and get to a peaceful resolution.”
Manchester Police Capt. Brian O’Keefe communicated from the scene shortly after 3 a.m. that chemicals were deployed into the hotel room.
MacDonald said police were at the Quality Inn to follow-up on a warrant check for Marshall and another man – one of the two found dead inside the hotel room. No other details were provided as to the nature of the warrant, although Agati confirmed that the presence of the DEA agent indicated that drugs were a factor.
MacDonald said authorities are seeking help from anyone in the public who has information about Marshall’s whereabouts over the past week. They should contact Sgt. Matt Amatucci of the NH State Police Major Crimes Unit at 603-419-8291.
The investigation will likely take several days or up to a week to sort out, Agati said. The Quality Inn will remain a crime scene and will be closed for business until the investigation concludes.
Manchester Chief Carlo Capano said in general, such situations are stressful for officers in the field.
“There was a nine-hour period where there were numerous rounds fired at the officers. As far as what that’s like – I wasn’t actually out there, so I can’t say what it was like for them, but in general – throughout our training and careers, any time an officer is in that type of situation where a gun is being shot at you or toward you, it’s an extremely stressful situation,” Capano said.
Mayor Joyce Craig, who attended the news conference, said she was proud of the police department.
“Their job, to protect and serve, often required many difficult decisions to ensure the safety of our community and themselves. The diligence, patience, and professionalism they exhibit every day, and especially over the last 24 hours, is to be commended. I am grateful no officers or bystanders were injured,” Craig said.
Thursday afternoon a heavy presence of police and news vans remained outside the hotel, located on John Devine Drive. MacDonald was joined at the scene by Deputy Attorney General Jane Young, and the two stood with an investigator who appeared to be describing the scene just outside the room where it happened.
Two broken windows – a large vertical window which was almost completely smashed out, and a smaller window with a round area void of glass at its center – were located at the rear corner of the hotel. A mobile crime unit was parked outside and investigators in protective gear could be seen making their way in and out of the hotel, along with other police investigators with cameras.
MacDonald said more information will be forthcoming, once investigators have sorted through all the evidence at the hotel, reviewed hotel records, and pieced together the sequence of events.
