Shannon family files wrongful death lawsuit

Benjamin Shannon (Rochester Police photo)

DOVER, N.H. - The family of the man fatally shot by law enforcement officers last month in Rochester has filed suit in the case saying they used improper procedures during the incident.

Benjamin Shannon, 34, was mortally wounded as three officers from the Department of Probation and Parole and a Strafford County Sheriff’s Deputy sought to arrest him on a bail violation. Gunfire erupted minutes after the officers entered his mother’s mobile home inside Sak’s Trailer Park on Milton Road in Rochester the afternoon of March 10.

Shannon’s brother, Wayne Shannon, said at a Dover news conference to announce the wrongful death lawsuit that the family was angry and confused as to how such a tragedy could have happened.

Wayne Shannon, Bev Shannon at press conference on Tuesday. (WMUR image)

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.

A tearful Bev Shannon sitting with her surviving son looked on but said little.  

McGrath claimed that Benjamin Shannon was unarmed when he was killed, a fact disputed by a family member in conversations with The Lebanon Voice last month.

During the press conference McGrath used a sketching of the mobile home to indicate his contention that lawmen shot through a bedroom door at an unarmed Shannon, then walked through an adjoining bathroom and into the room where Shannon was holed up, turned to the right and shot three more times.

Attorney Peter McGrath indicates where he says lawmen entered the room where Benjamin Shannon was from an adjoining bathroom. (WMUR image)

According to the coroner’s report from the Maine Medical Examiner’s Office, however, Shannon was only shot three times, in the arms and torso. The autopsy was performed in Maine because Shannon died after being transported to Maine Medical Center in Portland the day of the shooting.

Benjamin Agati, the Assistant Attorney General charged with the investigation, said last week that his office is still awaiting toxicology results before writing the final report on the state’s investigation and conclusion of the incident.

Agati would not comment on whether it appeared the three bullets that struck Shannon had been delivered by one, two or three different firearms.

Shannon was known to have been in recent alcohol and drug detox, a fact reiterated on Tuesday at the press conference held at a downtown motel.

He was charged with the robbery of George and Ed’s convenience store in February and was expected to be indicted on the charge by a Strafford County grand jury.

Police said he had threatened the clerk with a pellet gun.

No money amount on the lawsuit was announced.