Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has found that police were justified in their use of deadly force in an incident last August that ended in a police shootout on the Piscataqua River Bridge.
Trent Weston, of Troy, New Hampshire, was shot several times by New Hampshire and Maine State Police troopers but died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound prior to being hit by bullets fired by police.
Weston had called the police earlier the same day to report he had killed his wife, Brittany Weston, at their home. The couple's 8-year-old son, Benson Weston, was later found dead in Weston's car on the bridge.
The report states that Benson Weston died from multiple gunshot wounds, and evidence indicates the gun was fired from close range inside the car, and the ballistic evidence from the car matched that found at the murder scene in Troy — suggesting that Trent Weston shot him.
Frey wrote that officers reasonably believed that Weston was about to use unlawful deadly force and were justified in acting to defend themselves.
For more than 20 years, the Maine Office of the Attorney General has investigated incidents of deadly force by police and never found a shooting to be unjustified.
