Authorities reported on Thursday that a man who was being sought in connection with the murder of his wife in New Hampshire was shot by law enforcement and fell off the Interstate 95 bridge that connects the two states. Afterwards, their 8-year-old son was discovered dead in the father’s car, in the back seat.
Col. William Ross, chief of Maine State Police, told reporters that the guy stepped out of his car and lifted a handgun after attempts to speak with him had failed, but that the man’s actions were not what caused the boy’s death.
The man was shot, and after falling more than a hundred feet (30 meters) from the bridge into the Piscataqua River, the U.S. Coast Guard was able to recover his body.
According to Maine State Police, the Piscataqua River Bridge was blocked for seven hours before being reopened for traffic on Thursday morning. Drivers were sent to two different bridges, causing traffic to back up on both sides.
The incident started when the guy called Troy, New Hampshire police just after two in the morning on Thursday to claim having a domestic fight with his wife. Authorities later discovered his wife’s death at a house in the western region of the state, some 100 miles (160 kilometers) away.
The man’s car was traced by police to the 1,370-meter (1,500-foot) span that links Kittery, Maine, with Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Every day, tens of thousands of cars pass across the bridge.
When the man got out of the car and raised his gun, two state troopers from New Hampshire and one from Maine opened fire, according to Ross. Just after four in the morning, witnesses said they heard gunfire.
Ross emphasized that it was “abundantly clear” that none of the troopers’ bullets that struck the youngster during the altercation had wounded him. According to Ross, police were unaware the boy was in the car when they found his dead in the back seat following the shooting.
Although a state police representative would not comment on specifics, she did say that the evaluation was based on what the officers who were on the scene had observed.
On Thursday, no names were disclosed. The spokeswoman stated that the family had recently relocated to Troy and that the police were having trouble finding family members to notify.
In a statement, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and State Police Col. Mark Hall stated that the woman who was shot would have an autopsy on Friday, following which additional details on the inquiry will be made public.
The Maine Department of Transportation estimates that between 70,000 and 80,000 cars utilize the Piscataqua bridge every day.
When the event happened, I-95 was stopped to all traffic around 2:30 a.m., but police held traffic in both directions for hours, causing queues of automobiles and trucks.
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According to Ross, the man’s body was found about 8:30 a.m., and an hour later, traffic was allowed back on the bridge.
According to Paul Merrill, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, there are several cameras on the bridge that are used to monitor traffic, but none of them are set to record the incident.
