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State Releases Footage of North Country Police Shooting

Dashboard camera video shows two police officers firing shots as a knife-wielding Hagan Etsy-Lennon ran at them on a North Country road.

Officers kept firing as Etsy-Lennon fell at their feet. 

The release of the footage followed a legal fight over how much of the police video should be made public.  

The town of Haverill and several New Hampshire New Hampshire  media outlets sought 4 videos: footage from the bodycams of the three Haverhill police officers present when Etsy-Lennon was killed, and tape from the dashboard camera of one of the officer’s patrol cars.

Haverill officials wanted the full videos released to show the shooting of Etsy-Lennon was “not only justified but necessary.”

Etsy-Lennon’s ex-wife sought to block the release on the grounds it would be cruel to their children.

The media, meanwhile, argued the videos are public information under the right-to-know law.

In a ruling earlier this month, Judge Peter Fauver ordered the release of the videos, but with some redaction.

He ordered the body-cam footage not include the moment immediately following the officers’ first shot to the time when Etsy-Lennon is removed from view.

Fauver allowed the release the full dash cam video and of all the audio.

Lawmakers are working on legislation to codify policies on police body-cam footage.

That legislation originally required state troopers to wear body cams, but would have exempted all footage from the right to know law.

Right now troopers don’t wear cameras, but body cams are used by more than a dozen local police departments.  

Josh has worked at NHPR since 2000.
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