MANCHESTER, NH – Six people have suffered gunshot wounds in three separate shootings since Friday and police are investigating two additional incidents of shots being fired in the city in which no one was injured.
From Friday to Sunday, there have been five shootings in the city, with three on Sunday in which two people were shot. The other four people were wounded in a drive-by shooting early Friday morning on Interstate 293 South.
So far, no one has been charged with shooting any of the six people, although police arrested two men on Friday in an investigation into a shot being fired near Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St. Police said they have not connected that incident to the one on the highway although the people in the van had been at the nightclub earlier that morning.
On Sunday night, a man was shot in the face and neck in a struggle with another man who, the victim told police, tried to steal his car. The incident happened about 6:45 p.m. near Amherst and Lincoln streets.
The victim said he did not know the man who shot him and then fled in his vehicle. The victim was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment of injuries police described as not life-threatening.
About six hours later, at 11:35 p.m., a shooting was reported at 34 Quirin St. on the city’s West Side. The caller reported hearing several gunshots and a vehicle leaving the area.
Police arrived and found evidence the building was struck several times by gunfire. No one inside the building was injured.
Monday afternoon, yellow evidence markers, numbered one to five, remained in the cordoned-off street. Two police cars were parked nearby.
Promise Blair, 19, who lives on Rimmon Street across from the shooting scene, said she was at home on her couch when she heard what at first she thought were fireworks.
“I heard boom, boom, boom,” she said. Then two quick “boom, booms.” About that time, her boyfriend arrived home and told her not to go outside that there were police cruisers there. “Oh, OK,” she said. “We just heard gunshots.”
Blair is from New York but has lived on Rimmon Street for about a year while her boyfriend has lived there for several years.
Blair, who is attending the University of Maryland in the fall to study biomedical engineering, said she is familiar with gunfire, being a New Yorker. Until Sunday night, she said she had not heard any gunshots in the neighborhood.
“Here it’s quiet,” she said.
About 15 minutes after the Quirin Street shooting was reported, police received yet another call of multiple gunshots on Hevey Street, about a quarter-mile away.
Officers found numerous spent shell casings at the scene along with bullet holes in the building. Shortly after, police learned a man was brought to a local hospital suffering from a gunshot wound. The injury, described as not life-threatening, happened at the Hevey Street location, police said.
Investigators said it is unclear if the two West Side shootings are connected.
Like the Quirin Street scene, the area around the Hevey Street apartment house was cordoned off with police tape Monday afternoon. The police department’s crime scene evidence van was parked in the alley behind the building while detectives could be seen outside collecting evidence.
In the meantime, Dy’vee Spencer, 21, of 59 Palmer Ave., Springfield, Mass., was arraigned Monday morning in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District on charges stemming from the investigation into a gunshot Friday morning in the area of the Jewel nightclub.
He entered not-guilty pleas to: falsifying physical evidence accusing him of tossing a firearm out his car window; reckless driving; resting arrest/detention; two counts of conduct after an accident; disobeying an officer, and reckless conduct.
His passenger Jose Jusino, 21, also of Springfield, Mass., was arrested for resisting arrest.
Their arrests came when Officer Alexandros Hondros, patrolling downtown, heard a gunshot in the area of the Jewel nightclub. That gunshot happened after those wounded in the I-293 shooting were dropped off at the Elliot Hospital.
According to court documents, Hondros heard the shot and saw a blue Audi speed off. He gave pursuit and called for backup.
Spencer, who was driving the car, eventually pulled over and Hondros, and two other officers, began to approach the car, all with their guns drawn. Spencer, however, drove off and, for the second time, a police chase began down Elm Street with speeds exceeding 70 mph.
The pursuit ended when, police said, Spencer sideswiped a parked vehicle and then hit a “dead-end sign” and a tree at the end of South Elm Street. Spencer then accelerated in reverse striking a parked truck and then accelerated forward and struck Officer Alexandros Hondros’ cruiser head-on. Spencer tried to back up but at that point the Audi was immobilized. Both men were arrested. Hondros was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries and later released.
Detectives spoke with Spencer who told them someone had put a Glock with an extended magazine inside his car and he sped off when he saw the cruiser because he didn’t want to get caught with it.
About 11 a.m. Friday, a woman called police and said she found a pistol in bushes near where Spencer stopped. Police took the gun, described as a Glock 27 with a 30-round magazine, into evidence.
Judge Amy Messer ordered Spencer held in preventive detention.
Anyone with any information concerning any of these incidents is asked to call police at 603-668-8711.
