Connecticut Man Accused Of Firing Handgun In Concord's South End

CONCORD, NH — A Connecticut man with friends on Pierce Street in Concord has been arrested on charges accused of repeatedly firing a handgun during the early morning hours of Dec. 3.

According to police, several officers were sent to the South End around 3 a.m. for a report of multiple shots fired. The focus of the initial investigation was in the Pierce and Perley streets area, a "heavily populated neighborhood," according to Deputy Chief John Thomas of the Concord Police Department.

After the gun was fired, witnesses reported seeing the shooter flee the area in a black car.

When police arrived, they heard music playing from an upstairs apartment on Pierce Street near where neighbors heard the gunshots and saw people in an apartment. Police secured a perimeter around the neighborhood while a resident, with a security video surveillance system, shared footage with police of what cameras recorded.

According to an affidavit, the video showed a car, later identified as a black Kia Forte, with a woman in the driver's seat and a man with dark hair in the passenger seat. The man and woman were interacting in the car and other witnesses later said they heard arguing before the gunshots. The video appeared to show the woman "in body positions indicating she is upset," the detective wrote.

The man is then seen "manipulating an item in his hands while standing in the street." Then, he held "his right arm up into the air" while standing near the Forte and fired several shots from a handgun, the affidavit said.

"The video shows the muzzle flash of the gun," the affidavit stated.

After firing the gun, the man went into an apartment building where officers later found residents playing loud music and the woman exited the car. Not long after that, the man was "seen running from the area," entering the Kia, along with the woman, who got into the driver's seat of the car, and they left the area, the report stated.

Officers approached the apartment where they heard the loud music with one officer stating he could see Jacob Ryan Silverstein, 23, of Concord "holding a gun" inside of the apartment, a violation of his bail.

Officers called Silverstein and requested he and everyone else exit the apartment. Silverstein, a man, and a woman obliged the request. All three "were intoxicated by alcohol at the time and were uncooperative with police," the detective wrote. Silverstein was arrested on warrants unrelated to the investigation while the other two were taken into protective custody.

Police secured the apartment but inside, found a loaded magazine on a couch, the report stated. They then requested a search warrant of the apartment and reported finding five different types of 9 mm ammunition inside the apartment.

Outside of the apartment, police found eight spent 9 mm shell casings which matched the makes of three of the brands of ammunition inside the apartment, according to an affidavit.

About nine minutes after the shooting, police in Bow tracked a car on South Street near the Hampton Inn and pulled the vehicle over while on Interstate 89 South for a lane violation. The car, a black Kia Forte, was being driven by a woman in her mid-20s and had a man seated in the front passenger seat.

The Bow officer said the man "would not look at him" and during questioning, provided a name that was later determined to be fake, the report said.

"(They) were increasingly nervous," the officer told the Concord detective.

The woman claimed she and the passenger had been together for a few hours. They were checked for active warrants and cleared.

Later, the Bow officer heard about the shooting in Concord and car description. He went to observe the video footage and confirmed it was the same car he stopped earlier in the morning.

The detective also questioned a woman about the incident, the ammunition found in the apartment, and the officer accusing Silverstein of holding the gun inside the apartment. She said they were celebrating a birthday and were drinking when one of Silverstein's friends came over. She claimed not to know the friend's name and said she thought he may have brought the handgun and ammunition to the apartment, according to the affidavit.

Other witnesses reported seeing the Kia Forte outside of the apartment building as well as yelling before the shooting.

On Dec. 8, the detective was able to get a person connected to the three people at the apartment at the time of the incident to give police a possible name of the suspect, "Rich," after seeing pictures on social media of the friends partying.

The detective was able to look at calls for service connected to Silverstein and discovered the suspect's full name to be Richard Nagy, 27, with a last known address of Mystic Avenue in Willimantic, Connecticut.

Several BOLOs (be on the lookout) calls for Nagy and the driver of the Forte were issued by police across the state.

Manchester police arrested Nagy on the Concord warrant Dec. 11. He was charged with felony reckless conduct-deadly weapon and unauthorized use of a firearm.

Nagy was arraigned in Merrimack County Superior Court and released on personal recognizance bail. He is due back in court for a dispositional conference on Feb. 16, 2021.

Editor's note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Concord Police Department and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the removal request process for New Hampshire Patch police reports.

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