Standoff sentence - Ernest Thompson II prompted SWAT action last May by threatening officer

By GAIL OBER, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — A man who fired a gun near a city police officer who was serving him with some paperwork, triggering a three-hour standoff with police and a SWAT team, will spend the next 2 ½ years in prison.

Ernest Thompson II, 32, of or formerly of 246 Country Club Road in Laconia pleaded guilty to one count of criminal threatening with a gun and one count of reckless conduct with a gun.

By agreement, he was sentenced to serve 2 ½ to 7 years for threatening the officer. He was also sentenced 3 ½ to 7 years for firing the weapon, which was suspended. A charge of improperly influencing an officer by threatening harm was dropped by the prosecutor.

The incident began during the afternoon of Friday, May 13, when Thompson refused to allow a city police officer to serve him some paperwork. He returned into his home and came back out with a handgun, which he fired several times.

The officer returned to her cruiser and called for reinforcements, which came in the form of additional police from Laconia, Gilford, Belmont, the New Hampshire State Police and the Belknap Regional Special Operations Group.

Police surrounded the rather rural area and Thompson surrendered to them around 5 p.m.

In November 2015, Thompson threatened to kill firefighters who injected his wife with Narcan, an anti-opiate that reverses the effects of an opiate overdose. She later died.

Friends of Thompson told The Laconia Daily Sun that Thompson's wife was a diabetic and he felt the Narcan had killed her, but her medical condition could not be verified.

Thompson was sentenced to 12 months in the Belknap County House of Corrections for the criminal threatening, all of which was suspended pending his good behavior.