Three Londonderry police officers were justified in the deadly shooting of Calvin Ly-Bishop last year, the attorney general’s office found.
Ly-Bishop, a 23-year-old employee at Planet Fitness, had asked the officers to shoot him and threatened to fire at them if they didn’t, according to a report issued Thursday. The officers, believing Ly-Bishop would harm them or bystanders, fired and killed him on February 26, 2025.
The chief medical examiner determined that Ly-Bishop died from gunshot injuries to the chest.
No camera footage exists of the incident, except for Planet Fitness security tapes which captured Ly-Bishop leaving the gym. The Londonderry Police Department didn’t have body cameras at the time, and there was no footage from the police cruisers at the scene or from bystanders, according to the report.
The attorney general’s office based its investigation on bullet casings recovered at the scene and interviews with those involved — including Sergeant Timothy Moran, Detective Marvin Alfaro and Officer James DeFelice, all of whom used deadly force.
Officers were first alerted when Ly-Bishop fired a gun in the break room of the Planet Fitness where he worked in Londonderry. He had argued with a coworker a few days earlier and was behaving oddly, according to witnesses. They said he’d giggle while staring at the ground and mentioned letting “demons into his soul.”
Ly-Bishop had left by the time officers arrived at the gym, so police then set up a base camp near his mother’s neighborhood, anticipating he might go see her.
At around 5 p.m., when Ly-Bishop drove onto Winding Pond Road and headed into his mother’s neighborhood, officers decided to make a felony motor vehicle stop. Initially, Ly-Bishop initially complied with the stop. Then, he got out of the car without direction, holding his Glock above his head and refusing to drop it.
The officers’ accounts varied in explaining the sequence of what happened next, according to the report.
Moran said officers assured Ly-Bishop that they didn’t want to hurt him but that Ly-Bishop said he wanted to die and repeatedly asked them to shoot him.
He crouched and pointed the gun at his chin. DeFelice told investigators that he pleaded with Ly-Bishop not to shoot himself, and Ly-Bishop stood up and threatened to fire his pistol at the officers if they didn’t kill him.
“No, we’re not going to do that; we don’t have to do this,” DeFelice recalled telling Ly-Bishop.
Though the timeline given by each officer varies, they all said Ly-Bishop fired a shot up into the sky at some point during that interaction.
A line of traffic trying to exit the neighborhood had also stalled behind Ly-Bishop and was “too close for comfort,” Alfaro said. He said he saw Ly-Bishop look at the bystanders then back toward the officers before Alfaro commanded him to “drop the f–king gun.”
Ly-Bishop pointed his gun in the officers’ direction, and several officers said they believed he fired at them.
Moran shot at Ly-Bishop three times, DeFelice fired twice and Alfaro did so once. Ly-Bishop fell to the ground.
Three bullets struck Ly-Bishop in the chest and neck, according to the chief medical examiner. He also had marijuana in his system when he died.
The attorney general’s office investigates every time a law enforcement officer uses deadly force and has determined their actions justified in nearly every case over the last three years.
Police officers can legally deploy deadly force if they reasonably believe that they or others are in imminent danger.
Reviews by the attorney general’s office constitute a criminal investigation and only determine whether officers complied with the law. It doesn’t look at their procedures or tactics.
The Monitor filed a right-to-know request with the attorney general’s office seeking records related to the guidance it provides to the Police Standards and Training Council and police departments following fatal shootings in the state. That request was denied, citing attorney-client privilege.
