Autopsy results released on man fatally shot by Nashua police during domestic call

    A Nashua police cruiser parked outside a residence where a man was shot and killed Saturday by a police officer during a domestic disturbance call. Photo/Jeffrey Hastings

    CONCORD, NH – Autopsy results in Saturday’s fatal shooting of Heath Thompson, 40, by a Nashua police officer were released Monday.

    Chief Medical Examiner Jennie V. Duvall conducted the autopsy and concluded the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, and the manner of death was homicide.  As used by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, homicide is defined as the killing of one person by another.

    The investigation into the circumstances leading up to the shooting of Mr. Thompson is ongoing, and the identity of the officers who used deadly force will not be disclosed until formal interviews of all those involved are completed. Further information will be provided at that time.

    In a narrative of the incident released Friday by the Attorney General’s office, at about 11:47 p.m. on January 20, 2024, a 911 call was placed reporting that there was a domestic disturbance at 49 Marie Avenue in Nashua, and that an adult male, later identified as Mr. Thompson, had a firearm. 

    Officers with the Nashua Police Department responded to the residence, and outside the home encountered Mr. Thompson, armed with a handgun.  At one point during that armed confrontation, one police officer discharged a less-than-lethal projectile, and three other police officers fired bullets at Mr. Thompson, who went into the residence where he was later found by the police to be nonresponsive and suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.  He died at the scene.

     The investigation by the New Hampshire Department of Justice and the New Hampshire State Police Major Crimes Unit into the officer-involved shooting is ongoing.

    Investigators at the scene of a police officer-involved shooting in Nashua on Jan. 20, 2024. Photo/Jeffrey Hastings