How long do investigations into police shootings take?

The police shooting death of 17-year-old Mischa Fay remains under investigation by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, with no updates so far.

Fay was killed more than two-and-a-half months ago after Gilford police officers Nathan Ayotte and Sgt. Doug Wall responded to a call on New Year's Day at the residence where Fay allegedly was armed with a knife. According to the Attorney General’s Office, a confrontation occurred between Fay and the two officers within minutes of their arrival. Ayotte discharged his taser, and Wall fired a single shot that hit Fay. Fay was then transported to Concord Hospital-Laconia, where he was pronounced deceased. Besides this short narrative, there is little information currently available to the public.

There’s no telling when the Attorney General's Office will complete their investigation or what the findings will show in terms of justified lethal force or not. However, examining a pair of similar cases could shed light on a potential timeline for the outcome of the investigation in the Fay case.

Police shootings of people with mental illness are not an anomaly in the Lakes Region.

Michael J. Sheehan, 45, was killed in 2019 by three Belmont police officers after refusing to drop a handgun. Before his death, Sheehan told his girlfriend he was going to kill his sister and anyone who got in his way.

Sheehan was a U.S. Navy veteran with a history of bipolar disorder, PTSD, anger issues, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and refused to take medication.

When approached by Belmont officers on June 15, 2019, Sheehan got out of his car, placed the barrel of his pistol beneath his chin, and walked toward them. After Sheehan refused their commands to drop the weapon, police fired. According to the attorney general, the pistol was loaded with 12 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber.

The shooting that claimed the life of Sheehan was found justified less than two months later, on Aug. 6, 2020.

A Meredith police officer shot and killed local musician David Donovan, 35, on Nov. 15, 2020. Donovan was under the influence of methamphetamine, marijuana and alcohol, and had injured three people, two of which were family members, with a knife. Donovan was out on bail for an assault charge at the time of his death and had previous interactions with the department due to his substance abuse.

The 2020 shooting death of Donovan was ruled justified by the Attorney General's Office on April 6, 2021, five months later.

In all three shootings, the victims were armed males in either an altered state or with a history of mental illness. All three victims also had prior police interactions before the fatal encounters.

Just as in the Fay case, police deployed a taser against Donovan before using lethal force. According to the investigation by the Attorney General's Office, Officer Christopher Henry struck Donovan with a taser, but it failed to incapacitate him. After being struck, Donovan ripped the taser’s prongs out of his body and asked, “Is that all you got?” before advancing toward officers. He was then shot and killed by Officer Kevin O’Reilly.

Contrary to marketing materials from taser manufacturer Axion, the devices are far from guaranteed to incapacitate someone.

According to report by National Public Radio in 2019, tasers were advertised as being 80% to 95% effective in the field as recently as 2015. Data gathered from police departments in 10 major metropolitan cities showed an effectiveness rate from 54.7% to 79.5%.

Tasers work by firing a pair of barbed electrodes connected via copper wire to the weapon. Once the prongs pierce the skin, an officer can fire electrical pulses between the two electrodes. Some models allow the officer to fire additional pulses to ensure compliance.

Ideally, the pulses trigger involuntary muscle contractions, causing someone to collapse. However, if the person is too close during the initial firing, the barbs may not have adequate time to spread out to create an arc strong enough for incapacitation. Heavy clothing like leather jackets also have the potential to block tasers.

In all three cases, officers had interacted with the victims before.

According to the Attorney General's Office, the Meredith police officers had interacted with Donovan on previous occasions and found his behavior the night of this death to be "drastically different." Officers noted that Donovan was much more aggressive, angry, and less obedient than he had been on previous calls.

Ayotte and Wall had both been to the Fay residence for similar calls addressing the teen's mental health. None of those prior interactions ended with an arrest.

Sheehan was described as a "loose cannon" by his family and had an extensive criminal record. According to his family, Sheehan had previously threatened suicide by cop and appeared to be in a suicidal state when he was shot by police. 

Another key difference between the Fay case and the other two is age of the victim. Fay was a minor at the time of death, and it's not yet clear if that will have an effect on the finding.

The Gilford Police Department's use-of-force policy does not address the use of electronic control devices, or tasers, on minors.

The policy states that "ECDs shall only be used in situations where subjects are actively resisting or attempting to avoid arrest by escape and pose imminent threats to their safety or the safety of officers and/or others."

The policy authorizes officers to use deadly force under the following two conditions:

1. Defend themselves or third parties from imminent threats of death or serious bodily injury.
2. Effect arrests or prevent escapes from custody of persons whom they reasonably believe have committed or have attempted to commit felony-level offenses involving inflictions or threatened inflictions of serious physical injury AND they reasonably believe such persons still pose significant threats of death or serious physical injury to them or others. When feasible, officers should give warnings regarding their intent to use deadly physical force.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct Sgt. Doug Wall's first name.