A man who opened fire on family members and then shot a responding police officer was found dead Saturday night after exchanging gunfire with law enforcement in Raymond, New Hampshire.
Matthew J. Masse, 38, fired a long gun at family members at a residence on Ham Road on Saturday afternoon, then turned the weapon on the officers who arrived to stop him. One officer with the Nottingham Police Department was struck by a bullet, sustaining non-life-threatening injuries, Just The News reported, citing a news release from the New Hampshire attorney general's office.
Masse fled into the woods. A shelter-in-place order went out to nearby residents. Hours later, officers found him.
At approximately 10:06 p.m. Saturday, law enforcement made contact with Masse in a wooded area and attempted to take him into custody. Another exchange of gunfire erupted. When officers approached his location afterward, Masse was dead.
What we know so far
New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella confirmed his office is investigating the officer-involved shooting. An autopsy is scheduled for early this week to determine Masse's cause and manner of death. The names of the officers involved in the final exchange of gunfire are being withheld pending formal interviews, per standard protocol.
Investigators are currently assessing whether any body camera or cruiser camera footage exists from any responding agency. No other officers or civilians were physically injured beyond the Nottingham officer, who is currently being treated. The attorney general's office stated there is no further threat to the public.
A reminder of what officers face
Stories like this rarely dominate the national news cycle. They should. A police officer responded to a call about a man shooting at his own family members and caught a rifle round for his trouble. That officer went home alive, but only by fortune and the grace of God.
This is the daily reality of law enforcement in America. Not the caricature painted by activist groups and their allies in media and politics, but the actual, unglamorous, terrifying work of running toward gunfire so that civilians can shelter safely in their homes. Saturday afternoon, a family in New Hampshire needed help. Officers showed up. One of them bled for it.
The anti-police rhetoric that has saturated American public life since 2020 has never grappled seriously with incidents like this one. The "defund" crowd built its ideology on the premise that policing is the problem. They constructed elaborate policy frameworks to reduce police presence, divert funding, and treat law enforcement as an occupying force rather than a protective one. None of those frameworks has an answer for a man with a rifle shooting at his own family in rural New Hampshire on a Saturday afternoon.
Someone has to go. Someone has to knock on that door. Someone has to walk into those woods at night.
The investigation ahead
The attorney general's office has indicated that additional information will follow the autopsy. The exact circumstances of the final confrontation remain under active investigation, which is appropriate. Transparency in officer-involved shootings serves everyone, including the officers who put themselves in harm's way.
What is already clear from the facts is this: officers responded to a violent domestic incident, were ambushed with rifle fire, pursued an armed and dangerous suspect through hours of darkness, and resolved the situation with no further civilian harm. The wounded officer survived. The community is safe.
That Nottingham officer deserves more than a brief news cycle. He deserves a country that remembers what it asks of the men and women who wear the badge.
