Homeless Man At Concord Camp Accused Of Attacking Family Member With A Machete: Follow-Up

CONCORD, NH — A homeless man in a Concord camp, a location of several prior assaults, was arrested last week on felony charges, accused of attacking a family member with a machete.

Around 8 p.m. on Saturday, several police officers and a detective, as well as fire and rescue teams, were sent to Healy Park for an assault at one of the campsites. The victim, a man in his late 50s, accused his brother, Raymond J. Blodgett, 51, a homeless man now located in Concord, of attacking him. The first arriving officer made their way into the park, which is located near the Exit 13 northbound onramp of Interstate 93 at Manchester Street, to find the suspect or the victim.

The officer spoke with a woman who said she witnessed the assault and accused Blodgett of striking the other man three times. The woman said he was still at the camp and took them to the encampment.

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A sergeant and other officers also reported finding the victim.

When the reporting officer arrived at the camp, they called out to Blodgett and asked them to come out. Blodgett obliged and was detained in handcuffs, the report said. Before being read his Miranda rights, Blodgett was accused of saying the victim “does too much” at his camp. He was read his rights and interviewed about the incident.

Blodgett, an affidavit said, was allowing his brother to stay at his camp, in another tent, for the past two weeks, but he had been bringing all his stuff and sleeping with “his girl” in his tent. He said his brother was supposed to build “a small platform with wooden pallets for a propane tank” while he was sleeping. Instead, he was “banging” things around and making too much noise, the report stated. Blodgett said he was sick of it and got angry while also accusing his brother of selling methamphetamine out of the campsite, the affidavit said.

When he woke up, Blodgett told his brother he had to leave his site, and they began to argue, the report said. He said while he knew it was public property, it was his campsite and he asked the victim to leave, the officer noted.

“He told me they argued, face to face, for a few seconds,” the officer wrote while repeating he had to leave.

Blodgett then accused the victim of “looking down at the ground where there was an older machete,” and he was not sure if his brother was going to grab it or not, the report stated. He never moved for the machete or mentioned anything about it but was just looking at it, the officer wrote. Blodgett then backed up from the victim, walked back to his tent, grabbed another machete from inside, and walked over to the other man, the affidavit stated. He denied, however, striking his brother or that he intended to either, the officer wrote. Blodgett was accused of admitting he knew he needed a weapon to scare his brother into leaving.

After approaching the victim, Blodgett accused him of trying to grab it out of his hand. He then grabbed onto his brother’s shirt, threw him to the ground, and got on top of him, the report stated.

“When (the victim) went to the ground, the machete must have gone up and hit (him),” the officer wrote, reciting what Blodgett was accused of saying.

After about a minute, the victim ran off, the report said.

The officer asked directly if Blodgett had struck the other man with the machete, and he was accused of replying, “You think he would be out there talking to you if I hit him with it?”

A sergeant joined in the questioning and asked where the second machete was and where the burn hole in the tent was. Blodgett was accused of laughing and saying, “I jokingly told him I was going to burn the tent because it's my tent.” When the reporting officer asked why he did not mention the burning tent, he said he told the victim he was going to burn his tent because he could. The reporting officer countered that all of his brother’s belongings were in that tent, and he was essentially threatening to burn it all down. Blodgett said it was his tent and he could burn it, the report stated.

Blodgett was asked if he threatened to kill his brother, and he denied it, the affidavit said, but admitted to threatening to assault him and burn down the tent.

Blodgett was arrested on second-degree assault, domestic violence-second-degree assault, criminal threatening, and domestic violence-criminal threatening charges, all felonies, and a misdemeanor criminal threatening count. He refused bail and was taken to county.

The victim and the witness were being interviewed at another part of the camp. The victim’s hand and neck had lacerations and were bandaged up. The victim stated he was doing work around the camp when Blodgett came out of nowhere and started yelling at him, the report said. He accused him of removing his items, throwing them in the river, and threatening to burn down all of his belongings in the tent. Blodgett then walked off but returned with the machete and began swinging it at him, the victim said in the affidavit.

The reporting officer said the machete was more than 12 inches long and had serrated edges.

This incident was at least the fourth time in recent months that police and fire and rescue teams were sent to the park to deal with an assault and other incidents at the homeless camp in that park. In early March, a man was shot with a BB gun in one of the camps, requiring hospitalization. Kaitlin Cook was later arrested on charges. She faces first-degree and second-degree assault and reckless conduct-deadly weapon charges, all felonies. About a month later, another BB gun shooting was reported in the park. In late December 2023, homeless campers were rescued by firefighters after a rising Merrimack River began flooding the park and trapping homeless campers.

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