MANCHESTER, NH – A 24-year-old man, accused of threatening his father with a gun, told police he “was trying to do suicide by cop, and should have gone through with it.”
Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge David Anderson on Friday ordered Connor Shaughnessy of 23 Carpenter St. preventatively detained because, he ruled, there is clear and convincing evidence that his release will endanger himself or the public.
Shaughnessy is charged with criminal threatening with a firearm, domestic, and resisting arrest or detention.
Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Norm Lazarow, in asking Shaughnessy be held without bail, said Shaughnessy threatened his father with a gun, racketed an AK-47 and had more than 15 firearms within the home. The prosecutor noted that Shaughnessy has no criminal record.
Defense Attorney Timothy J. Goulden objected to the detention. He said Shaughnessy is disabled and recently applied to Medicare for Supplemental Security Income. Goulden said he was diagnosed with a genetic disorder and in 2014 underwent a 14-hour brain surgery. That seemed to resolve the problem but more recently Shaughnessy developed epileptic seizures.
One of those episodes, he said, happened in the Valley Street jail where he is being held. Goulden submitted a letter from Shaughnessy’s Massachusetts General physician, under seal to the court.
Goulden said his client’s actions were related to an anti-seizure medication that was prescribed for him by a physician in November at the Elliot Hospital, not the doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital.
He asked that Shaughnessy be released to his parents so they can immediately take him to see the Mass. General physician where a new medication can be prescribed.
Goulden also said that his client’s father, Mark Shaughnessy, was not frightened of his son. However, the judge pointed out that according to a police affidavit the father told police he heard his son “loading an AK47” before he left the house to meet with them.
Goulden told the judge the AK47 is a semi-automatic firearm, not a fully automatic weapon. It looks like a Kalashnikov. The firearms – both father’s and son’s – were taken by police for safekeeping, he said. He said his client has had the firearms for some time and that father and son go shooting together.
Shaughnessy, he argued, does not need to be in the Valley Street jail; he needs medical treatment.
The prosecutor said an assumption is being made that the medication is the reason for Shaughnessy’s actions when there could be other factors, such as his smoking marijuana in combination with the medication or something else.
The judge ruled that preventive detention “is the safest and best option at this time.” He said the doctor’s letter is far from conclusive. He said the incident was “extremely serious” and that a weapon was involved that can do enormous damage.
According to the sworn affidavit of Officer Ryan Garland, at 4:10 p.m. on Thursday police went to Shaughnessy’s Carpenter Street home for a domestic violence incident involving a gun.
Police cordoned off the area and Mark Shaughnessy met Garland outside. He told the officer he was inside his home when his son came downstairs smelling of marijuana. The two briefly argued and he told his son to go back upstairs.
Connor Shaughnessy pulled out a gun, racked the slide to chamber a round, pointed it to the ground and said to his father, “Do you wanna go?”
Mark Shaughnessy said he took his son’s threat seriously and knows once you chamber a round “there’s no going back.”
The father went outside and called police, but not before he heard his son load the AK47.
Police called Connor on the phone but he told them repeatedly he did not want to come out and meet with officers, that instead he was going to remain in his room on the third floor.
About 5:45 p.m., he agreed to come out and be taken into custody. When he came out, he collapsed on the front porch, the result of a medical emergency. However, he was able to follow officers’ instructions and he was arrested.
He was taken to the Elliot Hospital and, once treated, brought to the police station to be booked. It was during that process that he told police he was trying to commit suicide by cop and should have gone through with it.
Police recovered numerous firearms and ammunition staged at various points throughout the home.
