The Attorney General’s Office concluded Friday that the two state troopers – working as part of a SWAT Team response – who shot and killed a Franklin man last November in an armed standoff were justified in their actions.

Troopers Aramus Caraballo and James Powers shot and killed 42-year-old Nate Landrebe, who police said opened fire first from his apartment at 32 West Bow Street in Franklin. Landrebe was shot seven times.

“In response to what Mr. Landrebe quickly escalated into an active shooter situation, Troopers Caraballo and Powers believed that he posed a deadly threat to others in the immediate vicinity, and that deadly force against him was necessary in order to end that ongoing peril,” the AG’s report states.

The five-hour standoff began about 10 p.m. on Nov. 19 and lasted into the wee hours of the 20th. Franklin police officers responded to an emergency call from a woman who said a male neighbor across the hall in her apartment building had tried to smash through her front door.

The woman said she thought the noise and damage were the result of an ax crashing into her door. Franklin police responded and discovered that the door had been damaged by a shotgun blast. Officers, including a crisis negotiator talking through a loudspeaker, were unable to convince Landrebe to surrender.

A SWAT Team was called in about an hour later to form a perimeter around the building. The group included Trooper Caraballo, an eight-year veteran of the State Police Force who’s served five years on the SWAT Team, and Trooper Powers, who’s been a state trooper for 15 years and a SWAT member for three. 

Caraballo and Powers, both armed with semiautomatic rifles, positioned themselves behind the building, hidden by darkness and woods, according to the Attorney General’s report.

Officers later saw black smoke coming from the windows and eaves of the building, and by 3 a.m. flames were visible inside the building. Police suspected that Landrebe, a recovering meth addict, started the fire.

Moments later, the troopers heard breaking glass and noticed Landrebe standing near a window. They then heard several shots, “three of four,” and determined Landrebe had fired them, not the SWAT Team.

“Trooper Powers knew that the shots had not been fired by any of the SWAT team members,” the report said, “because their weapons were suppressed and made distinctly different sounds when discharged.”

That was enough to give law enforcement justifiable cause to protect themselves and others, the report said.

The shotgun blasts fired after the window had been broken were potentially aimed at other rescue personnel who were standing by, the report stated. While it wasn’t clear at what location on the property Landrebe was shot, the report indicated that he was hit as he moved around the corner and toward the front, toward law enforcement and rescue personnel.

“It was only when Mr. Landrebe actually discharged his weapon out towards nearby police officers and was moving to where other people were, apparently armed with the very weapon he had just fired, that Troopers Caraballo and Powers simultaneously fired on him,” the report read.

A robot was used to approach Landrebe, who was found lying on the ground by the porch, dead. The report said that Powers fired seven times; Caraballo fired 22 times. Landrebe was hit seven times.

Body camera footage was available, but the report concluded that the quality of Powers’s recordings were of poor quality because of his dark, hidden surroundings.

The report said Caraballo was not wearing his camera, explaining, “his decision not to wear such a device that to do so could compromise his location and expose it to gunfire.”

Also, video devices active during the shooting were “not directed behind where the shooting occurred,” the report said.

The findings were based on photographs, witness interviews, and numerous official reports filed after the incident. The Attorney General’s office investigates every lethal use of force by police in New Hampshire to determine whether it was legally justified and whether criminal charges should be filed against officers.