MANCHESTER, NH – Manchester Police responded to a criminal threat involving a firearm and a tire iron around 3:55 p.m. on Easter Sunday, resulting in the arrest of a husband and wife.
Several officers responded to a Sullivan Street residence where a couple was removed from the second-floor apartment for questioning, while additional officers spoke with the reporting party, who live in the same building, on the ground floor.
Arrested were Brandi McDonald, 29, and Jacob McDonald, 30, who consented to a search of their apartment prior to arrest. Inside, officers located a 9mm handgun and a tire iron, along with the couple’s four children, ages 2, 5, 7 and 8. The four children were later released to their grandmother’s custody while the parents were transported to police headquarters.
According to a police narrative of the incident, Brandi McDonald allegedly got into a verbal confrontation with a first-floor tenant and at one point threw an air conditioner down the stairs, which landed at the neighbor’s door. Jacob McDonald allegedly exited the home and began yelling at two teenaged girls standing on the Dubuque Street side of the building.
Jacob McDonald allegedly waved a tire iron while making threatening statements to the teens, ages 18 and 19, so their mother exited the first-floor apartment and exchanged words with Jacob McDonald. As this was taking place, Brandi McDonald opened a second-floor window and leaned outside while brandishing her handgun. Brandi allegedly threatened to shoot the woman and her children from the confines of her second-floor residence, while her husband returned to their apartment.
The mother and her teen-aged children retreated into their first-floor apartment and called Manchester Police to report the incident.
Brandi McDonald was charged with criminal threatening (felony) while Jacob McDonald was charged with criminal threatening (felony) and felon in possession of a dangerous weapon. The McDonald’s were scheduled to appear in Hillsborough County Superior Court-North on April 2, 2018.
Police did not describe what the initial dispute was about in the narrative.
