Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP A court officer escorts William Case to his seat at the defense table for his Wednesday bail hearing on a felony charge that stems from a September police standoff he allegedly initiated at his then-residence on Hunt Street.

NASHUA – William Case, the 59-year-old Nashua man who spent about six weeks in a Massachusetts hospital after being shot by police to end an hours-long standoff in September, was ordered housed Wednesday on preventive detention as his case proceeds.

Nashua police, who apparently learned Case was out of the hospital and back in Nashua from someone who reported seeing him on Tuesday, promptly took him into custody late Tuesday evening on the warrant charging him with criminal threatening – deadly weapon, a Class B felony.

The warrant, issued by police as part of their investigation into the Sept. 19 incident, had been pending Case’s release from a Boston hospital. He was first treated for the single gunshot wound, the “bean bag” round that struck him, and other physical injuries, then held in the hospital’s psychiatric wing, a prosecutor said at Wednesday’s bail hearing.

The charge accuses Case, who at the time lived at 21 Hunt St., the scene of the standoff, of coming within 5 feet to 6 feet of a neighbor while holding an air rifle.

An air rifle, Assistant County Attorney Cassie Devine told the court Wednesday, is “capable of causing serious injury or death.”

Neighbors told police Case had made threats against them in the past, and when police arrived, he allegedly “pointed a weapon at the officers,” Devine said.

“They had to take action,” she said, referring to the decision to shoot him and deploy a bean bag round.

Police said in a statement Wednesday that when police arrived at 21 Hunt St. on Sept. 19, a man told them “he was threatened with a long gun, either a rifle or a shotgun.”

When police tried to make contact with Case, he allegedly “refused to comply with commands to exit his residence … and a standoff ensued.”

Attorney Michelle Pike, a new addition to the Nashua office of New Hampshire Public Defender, asked Judge Charles Temple for personal recognizance bail for Case, on the condition he report immediately to the city’s mobile crisis center.

Pike said Case was involuntarily housed at the psychiatric unit at the Boston hospital, and was released because he “was medically cleared to be released.”

But Devine questioned the suggestion Case was “safe enough to be released.”

“I don’t know why they released him, but just because he was released, it doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous,” Devine said.

Temple granted Devine’s request for preventive detention, agreeing that Case’s release would endanger the public as well as Case himself.

Temple also cited Case’s “significant mental health issues” and his lengthy criminal history as reasons for his decision.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, or at dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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