MANCHESTER, NH – A man who shot and killed a pit bull inside an Orange Street apartment last month had a dispute over money with a couple who lived there, according to court documents.
Police say they arrested that shooter, Marcos Nieves, 35, on Saturday on East Side Drive in Concord with the assistance of Concord police, the Central NH Regional SWAT Team and the U.S. Marshals Service.
He is charged with burglary, criminal threatening, three counts of reckless conduct, being an armed career criminal, felon in possession of a deadly weapon and animal cruelty. Nieves is being detained in the Valley Street jail on preventive detention.
Detective Brian O’Leary, in a sworn affidavit on file in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District, said police at 1:15 a.m. on March 21, 2022, went to 137 Orange St. for a reported shooting. When they arrived, they found an American Staffordshire Terrier (pit bull) shot dead in the kitchen with six fired cartridge cases on the floor.
Two women, identified only as “A.M.” and “T.M.” in court records, told the officers that a man, who shot the dog, had fled the scene.
O’Leary spoke later that morning to “A.M.” at the station. She told him that a month earlier she and her boyfriend, “J.L.,” had loaned Nieves about $200 to $300 so he could get back on his feet after recently being released from prison. “A.M.” said she knew Nieves because about 6 to 7 years ago, he dated her sister.
For a few days before the shooting, A.M. had been calling Nieves looking for the money because she needed to pay the rent. The night of the shooting, she and her boyfriend spoke with Nieves over the phone about repaying the money and they both became upset and were swearing at him.
She spoke with Nieves at 12:57 a.m. and he told her he was going to come over.
About ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. She opened it and Nieves walked inside, without being invited, she said, brushing/pushing her to the side with his shoulder. Another man came in after him.
Once Nieves was inside the apartment, her sister’s dog began to growl and go toward Nieves who shot the dog three to four times. When the dog tried to crawl out of the kitchen, A.M. told the detective that Nieves shot the dog two to three more times.
A.M. said she had no idea where the other man went. She thought he ran out of the apartment.
Once Nieves began shooting, her boyfriend, “J.L,” ran from the living room towards a stairway on the south side of the building. She said she had no idea where he ran but she heard glass breaking from that area. She was unsure if Nieves was shooting at “J.L.” or not as she said she was “frozen scared” when he began to shoot.
Police said when the shooting began, a man inside the apartment, presumably “J.L.,” dove through a second-floor glass window, suffering serious injuries.
A.M. said as Nieves was shooting the dog, she was standing in the kitchen covering her ears.
When the shooting ended and Nieves was leaving the apartment, A.M. said she pushed him and he pointed the gun at her. He didn’t say anything. Then he left.
Nieves has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 1995 including convictions for robbery, reckless conduct, receiving stolen property and being a felon in possession of a dangerous weapon.
On Nov. 15, 2015, he was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in state prison for being in possession of drugs with the intent to sell them. His minimum parole date was Aug. 6, 2017.
According to records on file in U.S. District Court in Concord, on Aug. 5, 2015, Manchester police searched his then home at 72 Second St. where they found an AK47 and AK47 rifles, two safes containing money, cocaine, heroin, drug paraphernalia and documents with Nieves’ name on them.
On March 20, 2017, he was sentenced in federal court to 83 months for being a felon in possession of two firearms – a .22 caliber Glock and a loaded .40 caliber Glock that police recovered from a closet in his apartment.
The federal sentence was concurrent to the one imposed in Hillsborough County.
