An alleged gunman who opened fire at a New Hampshire country club, killing one person and wounding two others before being hit with a chair, was due in court Monday to face a murder charge, with more likely.
Police arrested 23-year-old Hunter Nadeau, a former club employee, on Saturday evening and charged him with second-degree murder after he burst into the Sky Meadow Country Club wielding a handgun. Robert DeCesare Jr., 59, was shot dead when he put himself between his family and the gunman after seeing the maître d’ get shot, the victim’s mother, Evie O’Rourke, told WCVB-TV on Sunday.
Authorities said Nadeau had no connection to DeCesare, who was six weeks away from celebrating his daughter’s wedding.
His widow, Charlene DeCesare, was “unbelievably traumatized,” she told The Associated Press. “Our lives are forever changed in one moment that would be senseless except for the belief that Rob was trying to protect me and my daughter, and maybe others there, too. In our hearts, he’s a hero.”
Next door in another room at the club, more than 100 wedding revelers were just starting to crowd onto the dance floor when they heard a bunch of pops, someone screamed “Gun!” and everybody scattered, DJ Michael Homewood told WCVB.
Witnesses said the rampage all but ended when another patron hit Nadeau over the head with a chair and he fled. He was arrested nearby a short time later. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella praised “selfless acts of courage by the patrons in the restaurant who put aside care for their own safety and worked to intervene and stop the shooter.”
One wounded victim was shot in the face and flown to a Boston hospital in critical but stable condition, fire authorities told WMUR-TV. The other was hit in the hand. Four people were hurt in the melee, with injuries including a broken hand, blunt force trauma, chest pains, panic attacks and lacerations, WMUR reported.
Police said a motive was unclear. Though one witness thought they heard him blurt “Free Palestine,” authorities said Nadeau had spewed a stream of verbiage that seemed more designed to sow chaos than make a political statement.
With News Wire Services
