NASHUA – Gerald Gutekunst’s alleged plan to kill himself and a neighbor by setting their Hudson apartment building on fire – and his alleged attempt to set a trap to ambush arriving emergency officials – were foiled by four police officers who were among those first responders.

The alleged plot, which Gutekunst described in one of “numerous suicide notes” police say he wrote in the weeks leading up to the April 29 fire, sheds new light on the deaf, 73-year-old man’s thought process, which, according to police affidavits, appears based on “retribution and revenge” upon his downstairs neighbor, his family, and the building owner.

“I’ll show him and them … what being a bad-ass is all about,” Gutekunst allegedly wrote in one of his notes, police said, adding that he “described his retribution and revenge as a ‘terrorist attack on the enemy forces who have harmed me.'”

The new details of the circumstances of the fire, which heavily damaged the large apartment building at Hudson’s 194 Central St. in the early morning hours of April 29, are contained in police reports and affidavits referred to at Gutekunst’s scheduled arraignment Friday afternoon in Hillsborough County Superior Court-South.

Gutekunst, who has entered not guilty pleas to the two charges – one count each of arson of an occupied or historic structure, a Class A felony, and attempted first-degree murder, a special felony – waived formal arraignment, and was ordered held in jail on preventive detention.

The arson charge accuses Gutekunst of setting the fire in his apartment knowing that it was occupied at the time, while the attempted murder offense alleges he set the fire “with a purpose that the crime of murder be committed.”

His alleged target was his downstairs neighbor, with whom Gutekunst “has a history of confrontations,” police said. Most recently, the two had feuded about parking and snow removal issues, police added.

The building, a rambling, roughly 75-year-old structure near the corner of Central Street and Burnham Road, has three apartments. Gutekunst reportedly lived alone in a second-floor apartment. The occupants of the other two apartments were all sleeping at the time the fire broke out, police reports state.

It was around 2 a.m. April 29 that Hudson police officer Colby Morton, who happened to be on her way to police headquarters to cover a shift, spotted what she thought was a “bright light” shining in an upstairs window and pulled over to investigate.

Moments later, she was on the phone with emergency dispatchers, having found the bright light was actually fire spreading on the second floor of the multi-tenant building.

During a news conference called at police headquarters the next day, Morton said she was almost instantly joined at the scene by officers Rob McNally, Alec Golner and Dan Donahue.

McNally said he dropped to the floor and crawled along until he came upon a man’s hand and arm. He said he grabbed onto the man, later identified as Gutekunst, while Golner and Donahue grabbed McNally to assist him and Gutekunst from the burning apartment, down the stairs and outside.

Gutekunst was transported to a local hospital, then taken to a Boston hospital for treatment of his injuries. He eventually recovered to the point he was able to travel back to Nashua for arraignment.

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

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