Concord Police Investigating Gun Threat Incident At Homeless Camp

CONCORD, NH — Concord police were sent to investigate a threat incident at a homeless camp off Sheep Davis Road on Thursday.

Around 6:45 p.m., multiple officers were sent to Route 106 for a report of a man and a woman, who were homeless campers in the woods to the southeast of the road, being threatened by another man with a gun and a woman with a knife, according to dispatch. Multiple officers arrived at the area near the TD Bank at the Steeplegate Mall to meet the complainants.

As officers arrived, one announced he was deploying a “long arm,” not knowing exactly what was going on. A second officer told arriving officers that a team would be going into the woods to investigate the incident.

The first complainant, a woman, came out of the woods to meet the officers and claimed a man threatened her and another man with a gun while another woman threatened them with a knife, according to officers. Dispatch told the officers the woman told them there was more than one knife used during the threat incident and the suspect hid the knives.

Merrimack County Sheriff Department deputies and Pembroke police also arrived to assist. Sheep Davis Road was closed to traffic between Walmart and the bank for a short period of time during the investigation. The team then entered the woods and encountered a shirtless man.

“Let him come to us,” one officer said with another officer countering, “He’s walking to me with his hands up.”

Dispatch ran checks on all four people and said they all had no active warrants.

Officers patted down all involved and moved them to the parking lot by the bank while other officers cleared other campers from the area so they could search for weapons.

Another officer told the team they were looking for a .38 pistol, possibly a semi-automatic with a serial number that was filed off as well as an air rifle pellet gun and the knives.

About 15 minutes later, an officer found the knives outside of a tent. A few minutes later, he found the pellet gun, according to scanner chatter. A BB gun was also found, under a blanket, tucked under some brush.

Around 8:15 p.m., an officer requested another officer to apply for a search warrant and requested backup, specifically, detectives, to assist with the investigation, according to scanner chatter.

Police then reopened the roadway.

Around 9 p.m., nine cruisers were at the scene with officers holding several people in the parking lot of the mall.

During the Sheep Davis Road investigation, two other officers were sent to a camp underneath the Interstate 393 bridge for a report of a fight. At first, it was reported as a domestic incident. Later, dispatch said there were as many as half a dozen people involved in the incident.

One man was arrested on assault charges while a woman fled the area, north on the railroad tracks near Horseshoe Pond.

Concord NH Patch will update this post when more information becomes available.

Got a news tip? Send it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel.