A Merrimack County grand jury has indicted a Concord man accused of firing a gun on Interstate 89 in November in the direction of a vehicle occupied by his girlfriend and a young child.
Elijah Gross, 40, faces two counts of reckless conduct and one count of being a convicted felon in possession of a dangerous weapon in connection with the incident that ended after a 12-hour manhunt.
The search for Gross began on the evening of Nov. 19 after police received a call from a woman who reported that her daughter, Rebecca Manning, had been shot at while driving on I-89 North toward Sutton.
In a police interview, Manning said she had spent the previous evening with Gross at a Tilton hotel, where she alleged he had injected methamphetamine and threatened suicide with a .357 revolver.
She said the two left Tilton on Nov. 19 for a residence in Concord because she needed to pick up her daughter. Once in Concord, Manning told the girl’s baby sitter that she needed to get away from Gross and didn’t want him around.
While Gross was distracted looking at a washing machine in the basement, Manning fled the residence and headed north on I-89. But just 10 to 15 minutes into her drive, she said, she noticed a blue car pull up next to her and saw Gross, who was in the front passenger seat, trying to flag her down.
“She said she sped up to get away from his vehicle and a short time later heard a gunshot and knew that Elijah had shot at her,” Trooper Joshua Beauchemin wrote in a sworn affidavit.
State police said they attempted to stop the suspect vehicle on the Exit 10 off-ramp, but Gross quickly fled into the woods. He was taken into custody the next morning after being seen by a passer-by in the area of Gile Pond and North roads, according to reports.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)