FRANKLIN, N.H. (WHDH) - A man died early Sunday morning after exchanging gunfire with police in an hourslong standoff in Franklin, New Hampshire, officials said.
State and local officials in a joint statement said Franklin officers first responded to an apartment building on West Bow Street around 10 p.m. Sunday after receiving a 911 call from a woman who said her neighbor across a hallway had tried to smash through her front door.
Responding officers soon found the woman’s door had been shot at with a firearm, evacuated the woman from the building and tried to contact the man across the hall, according to New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey and Franklin Police Chief David Goldstein.
Officials said state police SWAT personnel responded to the scene after officers heard gunshots coming from inside the man’s residence.
Near 2:35 a.m., officials said, officers reportedly spotted black smoke coming from the windows and eaves of the apartment building. Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order for area neighborhoods around 2:45 a.m. and saw fire inside the building moments after 3 a.m., according to state and local officials.
Officials said the man exchanged gunfire with state police troopers and was later found outside the residence near a first-floor window suffering from “apparent gunshot wounds.”
“Life saving measures were later attempted, but the severity of the fire prevented officers from being able to get to the male to provide immediate medical aid,” officials said.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene and had not been publicly identified as of Monday afternoon. His autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday.
Formella, Toomey and Goldstein said no law enforcement officers were physically injured in this incident. The earlier shelter-in-place order was lifted and officials said there was no threat to the public as of Monday afternoon.
While the origin and cause of the fire as well as the broader standoff remained under investigation, officials said “there are no apparent indications that the fire was caused by any law enforcement action.”
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