MANCHESTER, NH – Three Manchester police officers involved in the shooting death of a 24-year-old man nearly five months ago have been back to their regular patrol jobs for months even though the attorney general has yet to determine if their use of deadly force was justified.
‘Returning an officer to duty is a decision made by their specific department; it is not a NH DOJ determination and does not mean the investigation is complete or that the force was ruled justified,” said Michael S. Garrity, director of communications for the state Department of Justice spokesman.
Nickenley Turenne, 24, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of Dec. 6, 2025. Three Manchester police officers – Brandon Baliko, Andre Chan, and Devin Lambert – fired their weapons during what investigators said was a confrontation, killing Turenne. At the time of the shooting, Baliko had been with the Manchester Police Department for about one year; Chan, about 1½ years, and Lambert, close to two years.
Turenne died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to autopsy results.
The officers returned to their regular patrol jobs after an “administrative review was completed by the department and they were approved to return to work if they chose to or they could also remain out if they chose to” wrote Heather Hamel, public information officer for the Manchester Police Department, in an email. “They all returned. We followed our policy.”
Chan returned to patrol on Dec. 15, 2025, nine days after the shooting; Baliko was back at work on Dec. 24, 2025, and Lambert returned on Jan. 9, 2026.
Turenne’s family have expressed frustration with the amount of time the investigation is taking and with the attorney general not releasing the autopsy report and police body cam footage to them.
Family members, friends, the Greater Manchester NAACP and Black Lives Matter NH, have held rallies demanding justice for Turenne, a Black man shot to death by police.
Police were called that December morning about a “suspicious vehicle” parked near Green Acres School on South Mammoth Road. A car parked in the lot sped off when officers arrived, driving across South Mammoth Road and crashing into a fence behind a house.
Turenne, according to investigators, ran from the scene but a confrontation took place with the officers and he was shot several times. A woman in the car with him was placed on the ground and held at gunpoint while police secured the scene and provided medical care to Turenne. He later was pronounced dead at the Elliot Hospital.
Turenne, according to his father, was residing in Manchester and had been working at Fed-Ex before his death. He was raised in Melrose, Mass.
Investigators have not disclosed if Turenne was armed but the woman in the car with him reportedly said he was unarmed and that no weapon was recovered at the scene.
They also have not released the officers’ body cam footage.
“The New Hampshire Department of Justice conducts thorough, objective investigations into all officer-involved uses of deadly force,” Garrity said. “The investigation into this matter remains active, and the timeline is consistent with similar cases. Because it is ongoing, we cannot comment on specific evidence, such as body camera footage or the details of the confrontation, at this time. Findings will be released in a full report upon completion. We expect that report to be ready in the coming months.”
Investigations into officer-involved shootings can take a year or more to be completed. Earlier this month, the attorney general released final reports in two officer-involved shootings – one in Keene, the other in Hampstead. The Hampstead shooting happened on March 18, 2024, while the Keene shooting took place on April 29, 2025. Both were deemed justified.
The attorney general, in the vast majority of officer-involved shootings or cases of excessive force investigations, find the force used was justified.
Since 2015, there have been 58 incidents of officer-involved shootings or cases of the use of excessive force, according to Garrity. He said not all of them are justified.
“The DOJ has pursued criminal charges for on-duty conduct in several recent cases, including those involving former officers Matthew Millar, Richard Cobb, and Theophilus Osabutey,” Garrity said. Other recent findings, he said, have included “unable to disprove self-defense,” “undetermined,” or “accidental.”
Garrity was unable to provide the names of the officers involved in the cases that were deemed undetermined, accidental or unable to disprove self-defense.
Millar and Osabutey are former corrections officers while Cobb was a Concord police officer. Millar was found not guilty of second-degree murder after a trial while Cobb were found not guity of assault charges, also after a trial. Osabutey pleaded guilty to an assault charge and was given a suspended sentence.
Millar of Boscawen was charged with second-degree murder for causing the death of a patient, John M. Jason Rothe, 50, at the Secure Psychiatric Unit of the Department of Corrections. He was accused of applying downward pressure with his knee and arms on Rothe’s torso/neck area for several minutes while Rothe was handcuffed and faced down on the floor. A jury found Millar not guilty.
Cobb was a Concord police officer charged with four counts of simple assault for causing unprivileged contact to two individuals, one on March 26, 2023 and the other on April 1, 2023. He was tried on charges related to the April 1, 2023 incident, in which he allegedly pushed a homeless man to the ground. A jury found him not guilty.
Osabutey, 43, of Laconia, is a former New Hampshire Department of Corrections officer accused of striking a prisoner in the face, head and body on Nov. 4, 2022 at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men.
He pleaded guilty to a class A misdemeanor of simple assault and was given a 12-month suspended sentence. He had to complete 50 hours of community service, undergo an anger management evaluation and complete recommended treatment. He agreed to surrender his corrections officer certification and to not seek further employment in law enforcement or corrections.