Belmont and New Hampshire State Police continue to search for a man accused of shooting a woman in the head, fleeing in a vehicle to the Vacation Escape Motel, and then abandoning the car.
Police have three active felony warrants for Jason Cuocolo, 42, last known to be living in Meredith and Rockland, Mass. The search began about 1 p.m. Tuesday, when police received a report of a shooting at 24 Arlene Drive in Belmont.
The home belongs to Elizabeth Gates and Shane Farmer, according to property tax records.
State police Lt. Scott Gilbert said officers arrived Tuesday afternoon to find a 33-year-old unidentified woman with a gunshot wound to the head. She was transported to Lakes Regional General Hospital before being airlifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital, where police said she was in the intensive care unit Wednesday.
“I think she went into surgery today,” Gilbert said.
Cuocolo is the only suspect in the incident, and police said he and the woman know each other, though the nature of the incident is not domestic.
In the course of their search, police received a tip that Cuocolo may have been at the Vacation Escape Motel in Meredith.
Motel Manager Nancy Brown said she told police that Cuocolo came into her office Tuesday night asking for a room.
“I didn’t have one,” she said Wednesday. “He was just very disappointed … very agitated. He wanted one bad.”
After asking Brown whether there was another place he could go nearby, Brown said Cuocolo left.
Police searched the motel Wednesday, and Brown said she and all her guests were told to stay inside as law enforcement went through each of the 19 rooms. Authorities didn’t find Cuocolo, though they found the vehicle he allegedly used to flee from Belmont – a Nissan Altima – that Cuocolo then apparently abandoned.
That area of Route 3 was shut down for close to an hour and a half around lunchtime Wednesday, according to a couple receptionists at the nearby Roche Realty Group office. Even after the road reopened, police vehicles were visibly circling the area.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking to think he was right here in the office,” Brown said. She added that she didn’t notice whether he was carrying a firearm at the time.
Police continue to search for Cuocolo around the Lakes Region. Authorities investigated the Arlene Drive home Wednesday, too, though by late afternoon, no crime scene tape or police were present at the residence.
No one answered the door.
Cuocolo is wanted on three felony charges of first degree assault, armed robbery with a firearm, and criminal threatening with a firearm. Police are asking anyone with information to call them immediately.
Belmont Police Chief Mark Lewandoski said, “We consider him armed and dangerous.”
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @elodie_reed.)