Pair Face Felony Charges After Firearm Discharge Incident In Downtown Concord: Follow-Up

CONCORD, NH — A shooting in Downtown Concord during a blizzard cleanup in January has led to charges against two men accused of being involved in the incident.

Around 1:45 a.m. on Jan. 20, police received a call from a plow truck driver, who was clearing snow from downtown during a citywide parking snow ban, who stated he saw a man with a gun and believed he saw and heard a shot fired in the area of Pleasant Street and Odd Fellows Avenue, in Bicentennial Square.

Officers arrived at the scene and the plow driver pointed to the Bean and Bakery coffee shop area and said the man was in the foyer along with another man. The gun, he said, was discharged toward the west. The driver also gave police a description of the men — both were white and one was wearing shorts.

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Officers and a sergeant began searching the area, including the apartment building above the coffee shop. From the hallway, they overheard two men speaking inside an apartment.

“Dude,” one man was heard saying, “Did I just get myself in trouble?”

“Dude,” the other replied, “you just shot in the air.”

The first man said something to the effect of, “I’m going to leave,” an affidavit said.

Inside the building, officers made contact with Cole Patoine, 27, of Pleasant Street in Concord, and Nicholas Ferruolo, 22, of Shop Road in Hill with both men separated.

While speaking with Patoine on the second floor of the building, the officer accused him of smelling like alcohol and admitting the pair had been out drinking until around 1 a.m. They then returned to his apartment to hang out, an affidavit. The report said Patoine was asked about the shooting and said he did not know anything. However, he admitted to owning a 9mm Ruger, and said it was inside his apartment — but would not say where, an affidavit said.

When asked if he had fired the gun earlier, Patoine said, “I don’t want to tell on my friend, so ask him what happened,” the affidavit stated.

Officers asked if other people were in the apartment, and Patoine said there were, the report said. The officer announced police were outside, and they were entering the apartment for officer safety, and he reported seeing a handgun with a magazine on a shelf. No one else, however, was in the apartment, a detective said.

At the same time, another officer spoke with Ferruolo on the first floor of the apartment building and accused him of being “intoxicated,” based on “a heavy odor” of alcohol with his breath as well as red eyes and slurred speech. The officer noted he was wearing shorts, the report said, a matched the description the plow driver offered.

Ferruolo said he got out of work around 8:30 p.m. and was drinking with Patoine, visiting three or four bars, the report said. He said Patoine let him sleep on his couch because he was too intoxicated to drive and was “extremely drunk,” the affidavit stated.

When asked about the gun being fired, Ferruolo said he did not know anything about it, the report stated. He claimed to have “blacked out” and “did not remember anything” until he started speaking with the officer, the affidavit said. Ferruolo admitted to owning a rifle, but it was at home in Hill, a detective wrote, adding he said Patoine owned a pistol.

The officer asked him again about firing the gun, and Ferruolo countered, “What would happen if I did?,” the report said. The officer said he would like to make sure no one was hurt during the shooting and that depended on the direction the bullet was traveling. Ferruolo, the affidavit said, began to get upset and then muttered that his life was over and called for a ride. While waiting, he said, “I’ll be indicted for some b---sh-- I don’t remember doing,” the affidavit said.

The report noted a search did not reveal a spent shell casing near the apartment complex.

Later that morning, police viewed video security footage from the apartment building and accused Ferruolo of being caught on camera with the handgun around 1:41 a.m. During two minutes, the detective wrote, they both went outside — with Ferruolo raising his black shirt over his nose. He then appeared to hand the gun to Patoine, the report said. Later, Cole appeared without the gun, guiding a door shut, to be propped open by a deadbolt, the report said.

“Cole appeared to be crouched down as if picking an item up off the ground (possible shell casing),” the detective wrote.

The detective wrote the footage appeared to show the gun with the lock back indicating no ammunition in the firearm.

A few hours later, detectives executed a search warrant of Patoine’s apartment, seizing the gun, with an empty magazine, and a shell casing found in a toilet, beneath toilet paper, which had to be moved to reveal the casing, the affidavit said.

Around 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 20, Ferruolo was accused of leaving a voicemail to police about the incident, saying he now that he was sober, he should probably come in and speak about the incident.

A little more than an hour later, Ferruolo was interviewed and shown surveillance video of him with the gun. At one point, he asked, “Is that a gun in my hand?,” an affidavit said. When he was told it was, Ferruolo was accused of saying, “Cool,” while later saying, “Yup, that’s me with a gun in my hand.”

The affidavit said the detectives and Ferruolo spoke briefly about the incident, where the shell casing was found, and his research on the consequences of firing a handgun in public. He also was accused of sharing a text message between him and Patoine, in which he confirmed Ferruolo had shot the gun.

“Nicholas said Cole was probably the one who convinced him to shoot the gun,” the affidavit said. “Nicholas referenced the smile on Cole’s face from the still-image as they returned inside the building from outside.”

Another two hours later, Patoine was interviewed and confirmed much of the evening before the gun was fired. However, he said Ferruolo, having found his firearm, said, “Let’s go shoot this thing,” despite his discouragement, the report stated. Patoine also said he only had one bullet, and since he lived alone, did not lock his gun up, the report said. After the gun was fired, Patoine told Ferruolo to return to the apartment.

The reporting detective asked him about the shell casing, and he said he did not want to leave it in the street. The report stated when asked what he did with the casing, Patoine said he could not remember. When asked how the casing got into the toilet, he said he did not know, the affidavit said.

“If I was trying to do something like that,” he was accused of saying, “I feel like, I would have flushed, but it was probably an accident, maybe it was in my pocket, and when I pulled down my pants to pee, it fell out, or maybe it wasn’t even me who put it in there. I don’t know.”

The affidavit stated Patoine confirmed the text message with Ferruolo and said he purchased the gun in Hooksett four or five years ago, something confirmed via eTrace on Feb. 1.

A lab examination of the gun confirmed the Ruger functioned normally, and a microscopic comparison of the cartridge case and examination found it was fired from the same gun, according to the affidavit.

On Feb. 24, Ferruolo was arrested on reckless conduct-deadly weapon and unauthorized use-firearm-firecracker charges. In Merrimack County Superior Court, on March 28, his charges were reduced to the single felony count of reckless conduct. He was scheduled for arraignment on April 6, but that hearing was waived.

On Feb. 25, Patoine was arrested on reckless conduct-deadly weapon, unauthorized use-firearm-firecracker, falsifying physical evidence, and criminal liability for the conduct of another charges. Between the time of his arrest, his March 16 bail hearing, and April 4 dispositional hearing, his charges were reduced to just the falsifying physical evidence count. He was arraigned in Merrimack County Superior Court on April 6.

According to the affidavit, Patoine was convicted of drunk driving in January 2018 in Strafford County Superior Court after being arrested on felony drug possession charges and driving while intoxicated in Durham in October 2017.

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