A year later, still questions, still matters unresolved

A year ago today Rochester Police stand guard outside the trailer where Ben Shannon was fatally shot by a Strafford County Sheriff's Deputy. (Lebanon Voice/file photo); Inset, Ben Shannon (Courtesy photo)

ROCHESTER - It was an overcast mild March afternoon much like today.

Knee-deep crusted snowbanks lined Periwinkle Drive.

Icy potholes rutted its pavement.

Yet all was quiet inside Saks Trailer Park on Milton Road.

Until around 3:15 p.m. when a dozen police vehicles with sirens wailing barreled down Periwinkle Drive, bouncing off those icy potholes, to the scene of an officer-involved shooting.

Minutes later a mortally wounded Ben Shannon was being taking out on a stretcher, yelling in pain and crying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," according to a witness.

Hours later the young man who loved bicycling, tough man competitions and hanging out with family and friends died at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

The question that still haunts the family and friends, however, has never gone away.

Did 34-year-old Ben Shannon have to die that day? Could officers have somehow avoided the bloodshed?

In July the New Hampshire Attorney General's office found that the three state Probation and Parole Officers and one Strafford County Sheriff's Deputy were justified in their use of deadly force.

Beverly and Wayne Shannon at the announcement of their wrongful death suit against the Strafford County Sheriff's Office last April. (Courtesy photo/WMUR)

The report found the officer who fired the fatal shots believed he and fellow lawmen were in danger of physical harm as Shannon raised what was believed to be a weapon. In fact, it was only a cellphone.

When officers visited the home of Shannon's mother that afternoon, they were, in fact, there to check on his brother, Wayne Shannon, a parolee. But officers knew that there was an arrest warrant also out for Ben Shannon, because he failed an alcohol test while on bail as a suspect in an earlier convenience store robbery and had failed to report to Strafford County Community Corrections as ordered. The arrest warrant was approved the morning of March 10, the day he was shot.

While the Attorney General found the deadly force used was justified, a civil court of law has yet to do the same.

Beverly Shannon, and her other son, Wayne Shannon, announced a wrongful death lawsuit in April, citing police used improper procedures in seeking to arrest Ben Shannon.

Their attorney, Peter McGrath, said lawmen made poor decisions the day of the incident, adding they should have set up a perimeter, called for backup and set up a safe scene to take Shannon into custody.

The Shannons' wrongful death case has bogged down, however

A motion to lift dismissal of the case was filed last month, but denied on Wednesday because, according to the ruling, "the plaintiff had not articulated a basis for opposing the county immunity defense."

Several calls to McGrath were not returned.

The case is now listed as pending, the ball seemingly squarely in the plaintiff's court.