A former employee has been taken into custody as the suspect in a shooting Saturday evening at the Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua that left one person dead and several others injured.
Authorities identified the suspect as 23-year-old Hunter Nadeau of Nashua, who was arrested after police responded to multiple 911 calls reporting gunshots at the country club on Mountain Laurels Drive.
Nadeau is accused of shooting and killing Robert Steven DeCesare, 59, with a handgun. Investigators said they had no known connection between Nadeau and DeCesare.
Evie O’Rourke of Salem, the mother of DeCesare, described not being able to find her son after he was shot.
“He went down. My daughter-in-law and granddaughter escaped … They saw my son go down and they saw blood,” said O’Rourke.
Sophie Flabouris, another witness who was at the scene, told WCVB-TV that someone hit the suspect over the head with a chair to subdue him. Flabouris said the suspect then fled the scene.
“We had just gathered around the dance floor. We were about to do a Greek smashing of the plates and throwing the dollar bills. The bride had just come up to me and gave me the plates to say, ‘All right, you give this to my husband.’ And all of a sudden we heard ‘pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.’ Heard five shots,” Flabouris told WCVB-TV. “All of a sudden heard ‘Gun!’ Chaos, screaming, and then running.”
At a press conference Sunday afternoon, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said Nadeau had not worked at the country club for about a year.
He added that investigators are still gathering evidence and information regarding a possible motive.
“The fact that he was a former employee is something we want to look further into,” Formella said.
Nadeau shot and wounded two others. One of the victims, an employee of the country club, was airlifted to a hospital in Massachusetts and is in critical but stable condition. The second victim was a patron at the club.
Formella said four others sustained non-gunshot injuries while either fleeing the area or intervening during the confrontation with the shooter.
Nadeau has been charged with one count of second-degree murder for knowingly shooting DeCesare. The attorney general’s office said that “additional charges likely will be brought, including for the additional shooting victims.”
Witnesses say someone struck Nadeau with a chair after he shouted “free Palestine” and opened fire. Authorities have not confirmed those reports.
“I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the patrons in the restaurant who acted selflessly and quickly with more care for their fellow citizens than for themselves, to help keep this a contained event and minimize this tragedy as much as it could,” Formella said. “This is still a very tragic event, but it could have been much worse.”
Based on preliminary information, Nadeau’s actions do not appear to have been a hate-based crime, Formella said.
“In fact, I would say that at this point, the evidence leads us to believe that it is more likely that Mr. Nadeau was simply trying to make a number of statements to create chaos in the moment,” Formella said.
The Nashua Police Department was able to contain the incident in under a minute, and Nadeau was taken into custody within 30 minutes. He was located in a nearby neighborhood with assistance from surrounding police departments and federal agencies.
Kevin Rourke, Nashua police chief, called the incident a “senseless act.”
Chaotic scene
Emily Ernst, who was at the scene, said she saw a gunman in all black.
“He had a mask on. We just saw him raise the gun and then we ran,” Ernst said. “I ran through the kitchen for my life.”
Tom Bartelson of Pepperell, Massachusetts, who was at the country club, described a chaotic scene that unfolded near his nephew’s wedding. He said he heard the shooter say “the children are safe” and “free Palestine,” and appeared to be targeting someone.
“Getting together for a dance for the bride and groom and then all chaos went off,” he said. “We heard about six shots and everybody ducked for cover and next thing you know we’re rushed into safe spots and things like that.”
Wedding DJ Michael Homewood credited the man who hit the shooter with a chair for his quick action.
“He hit him over the head with a chair, and he probably saved a bunch of lives just doing that,” Homewood told WCVB-TV.
Earlier reports from law enforcement suggesting that two armed individuals had fled the scene were “erroneous,” said the attorney general’s office. Surveillance footage later confirmed that there was only a single adult male who entered the golf club and opened fire.
Jim Donchess, Mayor of Nashua, said he thought it was unlikely that a tragedy of this kind would unfold in the city, but he acknowledged the harsh reality that such events can occur anywhere.
“I think the message is for every community out there that no matter how unlikely it seems, it can happen where you live,” he said.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte said in a statement Sunday that the attorney general’s office will assist Nashua police with the investigation and that she and her husband were “praying for the victims and their families.”
At least three buses shuttled wedding guests and other attendees from the country club to the Sheraton Hotel on Tara Boulevard in the city on Saturday, which served as a unification center.
Guests were visibly shaken, some still in shock from the incident, with a few draped in white linens around their shoulders
An autopsy will be conducted tomorrow and Nadeau is expected to be arraigned at the Ninth Circuit Court in Nashua on Monday.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
