From Boston to New Hampshire, a series of deadly police shootings has left five people dead in just a few weeks. Some of those encounters began as mental health calls, and all are now under investigation, raising questions about how police are trained to respond when lives are at risk.
A day-long manhunt in Raymond, New Hampshire, ended Saturday night when shot and killed 38-year-old Matthew Masse. He’s accused of firing rounds at family earlier in the day before shooting a Nottingham police officer and running into the woods.
A day long manhunt ended here in Raymond New Hampshire last night when police shot and killed thirty-eight-year-old Matthew Masse.
New Hampshire State Police had identified the suspect as Matthew Masse.
About three hours earlier in Boston, police shot and killed a man during a prolonged mental health call near Northeastern University after authorities say he attacked an officer and an EMS clinician with a sword.
Just weeks earlier, another Boston officer fatally shot carjacking suspect Stephenson King—a case now headed to a grand jury after prosecutors charged the officer with manslaughter, calling the use of force unjustified.
Two other fatal shootings last month—in Weymouth and Westminster—also began with police responding to calls involving men armed with knives, and witnesses describing signs of distress.
A man is dead after a police shooting at Webb Memorial State Park.
Across these five cases, at least three began as calls tied to apparent mental health crises—a growing challenge for police officers.
“Law enforcement is justified in using and deploying lethal force if serious bodily injury and/or death is imminent, and in all of these cases, that was the fact. And so, law enforcement — we are not trained as clinicians. We are trained as first responders,” law enforcement expert Todd McGhee said.
All five cases remain under investigation.