Concord Officer Assaulted During Investigation Downtown: Video

CONCORD, NH — An incident downtown led to a Concord police officer being assaulted while a man and woman were arrested on assault and resisting charges.

A Concord police officer, on patrol downtown, approached two people near the parking lot of the Concord Food Coop on South Main Street at just before midnight on Sunday for a possible domestic incident.

The officer requested backup while the woman could be heard speaking loudly to the officer over his radio. Both the man and woman appeared to be intoxicated, according to police. When asked if he needed a third unit, the officer said, “Negative.”

The second officer joined the first officer to assist while the first officer ran checks on the man, Charles Frazine, 33, of Mountain Road in Canton, Connecticut, and the woman, Heather Berube, 36, of Sabattus Street in Lewiston, Maine. Not long after running the checks, the woman could be heard screaming in the background.

During the course of the investigation, the officers decided to take the woman into protective custody due to her alleged intoxication. The woman, according to John Thomas, the deputy police chief of the Concord Police Department, began to fight with one of the officers. The man then jumped one of the officers, he said. Thomas said the officer was struck in the face and fell down while the man also fell, hitting the ground face first.

A third officer arrived and the first officer said the man was in custody and they needed an ambulance due to both the officer and the man sustaining head injuries.

Concord fire and rescue teams sent two ambulances to assist. The officer, at that point, said the man appeared to be having a seizure. The woman, who could be heard screaming throughout the interaction with officers, was taken directly to the county jail. More officers also showed up to assist.

Around 12:30 a.m., police began speaking with area businesses that might be open to check video surveillance footage of the area. Later, a Merrimack County Sheriff’s deputy brought the woman back to Concord while police requested that firefighters return to the coop to hose off the blood in the parking lot.

Frazine was arrested and charged with criminal threatening, resisting arrest or detention, obstructing government administration, domestic violence-simple assault, and simple assault. Berube was charged with resisting arrest or detention and simple assault on a police officer, Thomas said Frazine could be facing more charges including assault on a police officer.

Frazine is still in the hospital, he said, while the officer has been released. While the officer’s eye socket was not broken, he was badly bruised during the incident and it is shut, Thomas said.

According to Concord District Court reports, both Frazine and Berube pleaded not guilty to charges on Monday.

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