A 38-year-old man who allegedly opened fire on family members and a responding police officer in Raymond, New Hampshire, on Saturday afternoon was found dead after a gunfight with state police later that night, the state Attorney General's Office confirmed Sunday.
Matthew J. Masse fled into a wooded area after the shooting, setting off a large-scale manhunt that shut down roads, sent K-9 units into the field, and forced nearby residents to shelter in place for hours. New Hampshire State Police located him around 10:06 p.m. When officers attempted to arrest him, gunfire erupted.
Masse did not survive the encounter. His long gun was recovered at the scene. One Nottingham Police Department officer was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries sustained earlier in the day. No other officers or civilians were hurt.
The chain of events began shortly after 1:30 p.m. Saturday, when Masse reportedly shot relatives at a location in Raymond with a long gun. A Nottingham Police Department officer who responded to the scene was also struck by gunfire. Masse then fled into the surrounding woods, and the manhunt began in earnest.
Authorities described officers as "working feverishly with other agencies" in what amounted to an all-hands-on-deck search. Road closures went up near Ham Road. Residents in the area were told to stay indoors. K-9 units joined the effort as daylight faded.
The standoff lasted roughly eight and a half hours from the initial shooting to the moment state police found Masse. Fox News Digital reported that the encounter ended with an exchange of gunfire during the attempted arrest.
The state Attorney General's Office laid out the conclusion in stark terms:
"There was an exchange of gunfire between Mr. Masse with his rifle and the officers. Following that exchange, Mr. Masse was found deceased by officers when they approached his location."
An autopsy was scheduled for early this week to confirm the cause and manner of Masse's death. The names of the officers involved in the final confrontation are being withheld pending formal interviews, which officials described as standard protocol.
Masse was not unknown to law enforcement before Saturday. He reportedly had active felony warrants stemming from an attempted arson at his family's home on Thursday, just two days before the shooting. The specific details of those warrants, including the filing date and case number, have not been publicly released.
That timeline raises an obvious question: was there any window to take Masse into custody between Thursday's alleged arson attempt and Saturday's violence? Officials have not publicly addressed it, but the gap between the warrant and the shooting will likely draw scrutiny in the days ahead.
The incident in Raymond is the latest in a pattern of deadly encounters between law enforcement and armed suspects that have tested departments across the country.
Several key details remain unclear. The names and conditions of the family members Masse allegedly shot have not been disclosed. The specific address in Raymond where the initial shooting took place has not been released. And the exact sequence of events during the final confrontation, who fired first, how many rounds were exchanged, awaits the formal investigation and autopsy results.
The New York Post confirmed the same core details: Masse was found dead after exchanging gunfire with officers during the attempted arrest Saturday night, following a lengthy manhunt through the Raymond woods. The Post also noted the shelter-in-place order, road closures, and K-9 deployment that marked the search.
For the residents near Ham Road who spent Saturday evening locked inside their homes, the ordeal ended only when word came that the suspect was down. That kind of disruption, hours of uncertainty, armed officers moving through the neighborhood, the knowledge that a gunman was somewhere in the tree line, leaves a mark on a community.
Incidents like these also raise broader questions about how law enforcement use-of-force encounters are reviewed and whether agencies have the resources they need to act on outstanding warrants before violence escalates.
The Nottingham officer who took a round Saturday afternoon was fortunate. Non-life-threatening injuries is the best outcome short of walking away unscathed. But the fact remains: a police officer responded to a call and was shot for it.
New Hampshire State Police Maj. Brendan Davey spoke at a news conference Saturday as the manhunt was still underway. His presence at the podium underscored the seriousness with which the state treated the search. Multiple agencies coordinated across hours, in fading light, through dense woods, to find one armed man who had already proven willing to shoot.
That effort ended the threat. It also ended Masse's life. The formal investigation will determine whether every round fired was justified. But the officers who went into those woods did so knowing what Masse had already done that afternoon.
Across the country, frontline officers continue to face volatile situations with little warning. A recent debate over law enforcement funding has only highlighted the gap between the dangers officers face and the political willingness to back them up.
Thursday: felony warrants issued for attempted arson at the family home. Saturday at 1:30 p.m.: Masse allegedly shoots relatives and a responding officer. Saturday at 10:06 p.m.: state police locate him. Minutes later, he is dead after a gunfight.
Two days separated the warrant from the carnage. Whether anything could have been done in that window is a question investigators and the public will press. The Attorney General's Office has scheduled an autopsy but has offered no further comment on the broader timeline or any prior contact with Masse.
Violent crime stories like this one, and others, such as a brutal attack on a Good Samaritan in Florida, remind us that the people who bear the cost of lawlessness are almost always ordinary citizens going about their lives.
The officers who ended the manhunt in Raymond did what the public expects of them: they ran toward the danger. The question now is whether the system that let Masse remain free for two days after an alleged arson attempt will face any accountability at all.
