MANCHESTER, N.H. — Six New Hampshire police officers who fatally shot an armed man were justified in their use of deadly force and will not face criminal charges, the state attorney general said Friday. The man was struck at least 11 times.
The “initial threat of the imminent use of deadly force against the police, and their subsequent responsive deadly force, is established not only by the consistent account of events provided by the police officers present, but also from the available police digital evidence," the investigation released by Attorney General John M. Formella’s office said.
The officers went to the parking lot of a pharmacy in Manchester in response to a domestic violence 911 call in the early morning hours of June 19, according to the report.
There they encountered Adnan Husejnovic, 33, of Manchester, inside a vehicle and his wife outside. She told officers that he had assaulted her inside the vehicle.
Husejnovic refused police orders to surrender peacefully which led to a roughly 90-minute standoff, the report said.
Just after 2 a.m., he opened the vehicle's door and one of the responding officers identified as Manchester Police Sgt. Eric Joyal saw that Husejnovic’s index finger was on the trigger of a gun. He continued to ignore another officer's instructions to drop the weapon.
“He then saw Mr. Husejnovic raise the firearm in his left hand, pointing it toward the officers through the door window," the report said.
Joyal fired five or six rounds that were followed by gunfire from three other Manchester police officers and two New Hampshire State Police troopers. They were identified in the report as Manchester Police Officers Eric Cooper, Brendon Megan, and Jake Sawtelle and New Hampshire State Police Troopers Brandon Tallon and Tyler Duhamel.
No one else was injured.
The investigation found that Husejnovic and his wife were homeless and living in the vehicle, while toxicology testing found that he had several drugs in his system that would “result in acute intoxication," the report said.
The investigation found that Husejnovic had at least 34 documented contacts with Manchester police and a criminal record that included convictions for domestic simple assault, the report said.
