The Boston Globe says 10 days of bloodshed in New Hampshire during April have left residents on edge in a state that prides itself on its low homicide rate. Ten violent deaths spanned the state geographically and occurred without discernible pattern. Jane Young, the senior assistant state attorney general, called the violence “unprecedented.” The most prominent killing was that of Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney, shot to death April 12 while serving a search warrant in a drug case.
Four other officers serving the warrant were wounded. Inside the home, the shooter, Cullen Mutrie, apparently killed his former girlfriend, Brittany Tibbetts, before killing himself. The first violent death occurred on April 7, when one man ran over another in Claremont. Five days later, on the same day as the Greenland tragedy, a shooting in Dalton left two dead and one wounded. On April 14, a man was fatally shot on a rural road in Chesterfield and on April 17 officials opened another homicide investigation into three more deaths in Lancaster. The deaths have left residents wondering what has happened to their quiet state.