Authorities released new details Friday about an incident where police shot and killed an armed man on the Interstate 95 bridge who is believed to have killed his wife and 8-year-old son.
The man has been identified as 37-year-old Trent Weston of Troy, New Hampshire, following an autopsy, according to Maine and New Hampshire authorities. His cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and his manner of death has been ruled homicide as a result of a police shooting. His son has been identified as Benson Weston, and his cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was homicide.
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The investigation into these deaths and the homicide in Troy involving Trent Weston's wife, 37-year-old Brittany Weston, is ongoing. An autopsy determined her cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds to the head and the manner of death to be homicide.
Authorities said at this time, "all evidence indicates that Trent Weston is responsible for the deaths of both Brittany and Benson Weston."
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The incident came to a head when Trent Weston was shot and killed by police in the early-morning hours Thursday on the Piscataqua River Bridge between New Hampshire and Maine. Authorities said the incident appears to have started when Weston killed his wife at their home in Troy, in western New Hampshire, and then drove nearly 100 miles to the bridge.
At a press conference Thursday, Col. William Ross, chief of the Maine State Police, said York, Maine, police received a 911 call around 2:07 a.m. from a man saying he had been involved in a fight with his wife in Troy and that his wife was dead. New Hampshire State Police responded to the residence in Troy and found Brittany Weston dead.
Around 2:30 a.m., Ross said police from Kittery, Maine, located Trent Weston's vehicle parked in the middle of the Piscataqua River Bridge on the Maine side. Law enforcement from New Hampshire and Maine responded and tried to negotiate with him, but those negotiations were unsuccessful. Weston exited his vehicle and raised a gun, and was shot by Maine State Police Trooper Craig Nilsen and two New Hampshire State Police troopers whose names have not yet been released.
Weston fell into the water below the bridge, Ross said, where he was recovered by the U.S. Coast Guard at 8:30 a.m. and declared dead.
Law enforcement on scene located an 8-year-old boy, since identified as Weston's son Benson, who had been shot to death in the back seat of the vehicle. Ross said police did not know there was a child in the back seat when they fired their guns, but the boy's death was not caused by the shots fired by troopers.
"Based on information we saw, it was very clear the officers involved in shooting did not fire on that child," he said.
Ross said the troopers involved in Trent Weston's shooting have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, per standard procedure.
Photos from the initial crime scene on Monadnock Road in Troy, located near Keene, showed a New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit vehicle and several unmarked cruisers outside a townhouse complex in a wooded area on Thursday. Yellow police tape surrounded the property.
A neighbor told NBC10 Boston the family had just moved into the home a little over a month ago.
