Full Video: State police provide update on Piscataqua River Bridge incident

Uh My name is Colonel Bill Ross with the main State police on behalf of myself and Colonel Mark Hall of the New Hampshire State Police. Uh We're here to bring you up to date uh on an incident that's been occurring over the last day. Uh This is still an ongoing investigation. So we're going to get you as much information as we can right now. Like I don't want to stress it's still an ongoing investigation and we're not going to be able to give you uh all of the details at this point that will be uh coming in the, the days moving forward. Um I first want to thank uh our partners in this, the Kittery Police Department, New York Police Department, the Elliott Police Department. Uh Certainly the New Hampshire State Police, the main turnpike authority, the New Hampshire Attorney General's office and the United States Coast Guard for their assistance in this. So there are a lot of partners involved uh over the early morning hours that uh help bring this uh to an ending, but to go into some of the details right now at approximately 2:07 a.m. on this date. August 29th, New York Police Department received a 911 call from a male stating that he'd been involved in a fight with his wife in the town of Troy, New Hampshire. Uh during that call, he told authorities that his wife was dead. The New Hampshire State police responded to the residence in Troy, New Hampshire and located a deceased female at approximately 230 Kittery police located the mail's vehicle on the Piscataqua river bridge parked in the southbound lane in the state of Maine right in the middle of the bridge. Law enforcement agencies from New Hampshire and Maine responded and tried to negotiate with the mail. The bridge was shut down for several hours to protect the public while the negotiations were attempted and the scene was secured, the main state negotiations were ultimately unsuccessful. The male then exited his vehicle and at that time, he raised the firearm, Maine state trooper, Craig Nielsen and two New Hampshire state troopers responded with deadly force. The male subject was located deceased in the water below the bridge and was declared dead in the scene. He fell from the bridge. The male subject um was recovered by the coast guard at that time almost immediately after falling into the water. Law enforcement officer on scene located an eight year old child fatally shot in the back seat of the vehicle. This death is not associated with the officer's use of deadly force. I want to stress this right now that the child's death is not associated with the police officer's use of deadly force. Today, we have information uh that, that is not the case. I just want to make sure that everyone's clear on that. Moving forward, Maine State police major crimes and the New Hampshire State police major crimes are investigating the deaths of the female and the child. Uh The troopers involved in this incident are on administrative leave pending the main Attorney General's investigation into the use of deadly fourth force, which is our standard procedure. The uh again, the northbound and southbound lanes were closed for a number of hours and they were reopened just after 930 this morning. Uh traffic had been diverted off the main line in both New Hampshire and Maine uh to so we were able to uh move traffic uh through alternate routes. Again, that was with great assistance from our partners in this. Uh I'm not going to be able to take a lot of questions, but I will field some at this time if you have them. And um again, please be patient with this. This is an ongoing investigation. Uh And when we have more information, we'll make sure we get it to you folks. Uh the family, father, uh husband, wife and, and, and uh child was uh all of that is uh stuff that we're not going to be getting into right now. Those are some of the details of the investigation, we're going to let our major crimes units and the Attorney General's office work through those particulars. But I'm sure that information will be available in the future. Again, that's part of the investigation that's ongoing. But based on information we saw it was very clear that the, the officers that were involved in the shooting, uh, did not fire on that child morning again, the particulars of that he had a firearm, he was raising the firearm. Uh Again, I think the investigators are still looking into the particulars of that. Right. Right. Now, the child was found after the altercation with the male subject, they were not aware that the child was in the car at the time. Again, I think those details will come out in time. There's I I know everyone wants to know the why right now we're going to be focused on what happened and try and get that information to you. Um Again, ongoing investigation, a lot of details uh that we still need to uncover a lot of work has been done on this. Um Again, I want to thank the agencies that were involved. Uh Anytime you shut uh the main line down on a on interstate 95 that's a big undertaking. Uh When you add everything else that happened uh regarding this incident, um A lot of people had to come together to make this work. I'm also very proud of the working relationship that we have with the New Hampshire State Police Major Crimes Unit and the respective Attorney General's office. Uh We have uh had the pleasure of working them on several occasions and there this is, this is no different. Hey, folks, again, we will have more information coming to you as this unravels and we have more to provide to you. Again, a lot is happening. Um I think you have enough now uh moving forward when more information becomes available, we'll get it out to you. Thank you for your patience. Um and uh be safe. Thank you very much.