(Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS) State and local police draw up a plan to deploy units during the manhunt for the suspect in a Brookline shooting, who was later identified as Robert C. Gagnon.

OSSIPEE — As state and local authorities press their investigation into Wednesday morning’s series of incidents that began with a shooting in Brookline then expanded into a six-hour, multi-town manhunt, former Wilton resident Robert C. Gagnon, the suspect in the shooting, was arraigned via video conference in Carroll County Superior Court on a charge of attempted murder.

Gagnon, 45, who was arrested at gunpoint in downtown Nashua around noontime Wednesday, is accused of shooting Carlos Quintong, 44, near the intersection of Route 13 and Townsend Hill Road in Brookline around 6:30 a.m. then fleeing the scene.

Gagnon entered a not guilty plea through his appointed attorneys, Sarah Rothman and Meridith Lugo, and was ordered held in jail on preventive detention. While Rothman and Lugo didn’t object to Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati’s request for preventive detention, they left open the possibility of scheduling a bail hearing in the near future.

Meanwhile, the complicated investigation also involves the apparently related homicide of 83-year-old Lyndeborough resident Robert Prest, who, according to the results of an autopsy conducted Friday, died of “blunt impact head injuries” around mid-morning Wednesday.

A statement issued by the office of Attorney General John Formella announcing the autopsy results noted that the examination “concluded that the head injury was indeed from blunt impact forces, rather than from having been shot.”

(Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS) Robert C. Gagnon, who is charged with shooting a man in Brookline on Wednesday, appears for his arraignment Friday, which was conducted in Carroll County Superior Court in Ossipee via video conference from Valley Street jail in Manchester, where he is being held.

That clarification stemmed from early dispatches from authorities that stated two people had been killed Wednesday morning. It was initially reported that the victim in the Brookline shooting, later identified as Quintong, died from gunshot wounds, but a short time later it was determined that Quintong was taken to a Massachusetts hospital and is currently undergoing treatment.

Agati, meanwhile, said following Gagnon’s arraignment Friday that investigators believe Gagnon and Prest “were familiar with each other,” but they are “still looking into” the nature of that relationship.

Prest was found deceased in his 774 Center Road home by an officer who went to the residence after police discovered an abandoned vehicle and traced the registration to Prest.

“We cannot say 100 percent that the (alleged crimes) are related, but we’re looking at that as a possibility,” Agati said.

Beginning with the issuance of a be-on-the-lookout bulletin to law enforcement agencies in the region by state and Brookline police who arrived at the scene where Quintong was shot, state police, county sheriffs, and officers from Brookine, Wilton, Milford, Greenfield and Lyndeborough were scouring the region in search of the suspect vehicle.

A police K9 team from Peterborough searched a railroad bed in Greenfield, and at the same time several reports were coming in from residents who said they had spotted the man.

Several police units, and the state police Major Crime Unit, were soon parked on the Center Road property in front of a large barn.

As searchers spread into neighboring Greenfield, police received a tip that a man, possibly the suspect, had been given a ride to the Market Basket store in Milford. Police swarmed the area, evacuated the store, and checked each vehicle as it exited the parking lot.

Police then received information that a man matching the description of the suspect was on his way to Nashua to seek medical care.

Nashua officers began checking the city’s hospitals when a tip came in stating the suspect may be in the Railroad Square area, or possibly Penuche’s Ale House, which is at the corner of Canal and Orange streets.

Numerous officers drove around the area for a time. Just after noon, police in the area of Auburn Street spotted a man matching the suspect description, whom they later identified as Gagnon.

As numerous units descended on the scene, Gagnon was taken into custody at gunpoint.

Telegraph contributor Jeffrey Hastings provided reporting for this story.

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

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