Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS Two members of the U.S. Marshal's task force stand by near the scene of Wednesday's eight-hour standoff at a Union Street home in Manchester. (Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS)

MANCHESTER – In an attempt to serve a federal warrant Wednesday morning, members of a U.S. Marshal’s task force were greeted with gunfire as they approached the Union Street residence, police said.

Officers were called, a shelter-in-place order was issued and the roads in the area were blocked to traffic, police said.

Also, four of the five people in the home were evacuated and safely removed from the area.

For the next eight hours, police and crisis negotiators communicated via cell phone with the suspect, but as the day wore on, the negotiators eventually lost contact with the unidentified man.

At that point, according to Manchester police spokeswoman Heather Hamel, officers deployed “an irritant” into the house, then waited.

Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS Two SWAT team members discuss the eight-hour standoff with a suspect in the house in the background, which came to an end after the suspect was discovered deceased. (Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS)

When the suspect did not come out, Hamel said, officers dispatched a robot-like drone, and when it got to the basement of the home its cameras delivered images of a deceased man.

While it appears the man died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Hamel said, the official cause and manner of death are pending an autopsy to be conducted by a representative of the state Medical Examiner’s office.

Manchester police Chief Allen Aldenberg said following the incident that the situation was a tense one “from the beginning.”

“But due to the quick response of initial patrol units and the subsequent response of the SWAT team, we were able to contain this very quickly,” Aldenberg told the gaggle of news media gathered around him.

He thanked members of the public for their patience during the ordeal. “We understand the inconvenience this caused but we had to take every precaution to keep the community safe,” Aldenberg said.

Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS Armored vehicles, including Nashua's Bearcat unit, join police cruisers in front of the Union Street residence that was the scene of an eight-hour standoff Wednesday. The suspect was later found deceased in the house. (Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS)

The “multi-agency effort,” Aldenberg said, included the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Marshals Service, DEA, Manchester Fire Department, American Medical Response, Nashua Police, and the FBI.”

U.S. Marshal Nick Willard, a former Manchester police chief, commended Aldenberg and his department “for their immediate mobilization and protective actions to safeguard the community.”

Mayor Joyce Craig said in a statement that she’s “thankful for Chief Aldenberg’s leadership and the efforts of the men and women of the Manchester Police Department to resolve this difficult, and tragic, situation.”

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

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