KITTERY, Maine — A man being pursued in the killing of his wife in New Hampshire was shot by police and tumbled from the Interstate 95 bridge that connects the state to Maine, officials said Thursday. Their 8-year-old boy was found dead in the back seat of the father's vehicle afterward.
The boy's death was not caused by gunfire from three law enforcement officials who discharged their firearms after the man stepped out of his vehicle and raised a weapon after failed attempts to negotiate with him, Col. William Ross, chief of Maine State Police, told reporters.
After being shot, the man fell more than 100 feet (30 meters) from the bridge into the Piscataqua River, where his body was retrieved by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Piscataqua River Bridge was closed for seven hours before reopening during the Thursday morning commute, Maine State Police said. Traffic was backed up on both sides as drivers were diverted to two other bridges.
The episode began with the man calling police shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday to report a domestic altercation with his wife in Troy, New Hampshire, where police found his wife's body about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away at a home in the western part of the state, officials said.
Police tracked the man's vehicle to the 4,500-foot-long (1,370-meter-long) span that connects Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Kittery, Maine. Tens of thousands of vehicles cross the bridge daily.
One Maine state trooper and two New Hampshire troopers fired when the man emerged from the vehicle and raised his weapon, Ross said. Witnesses reported hearing gunfire shortly after 4 a.m.
Police didn't know the boy was in the car and discovered his body in the vehicle's back seat after the shooting, said Ross, who stressed that it was ''abundantly clear'' that the boy was not hit by any of the bullets fired by the troopers in the confrontation.
