New Hampshire State Police, New Hampshire
End of Watch: Tuesday, August 19, 1997
Age: 32
Tour of Duty: 13 years
Badge Number: 608
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: August 19, 1997
Weapon Used: Rifle; Automatic
Suspect Info: Shot and killed
Troopers Scott Phillips and Leslie Lord were shot and killed after Trooper Phillips had stopped a vehicle near the intersection of Route 3 and Hughes Road in Colebrook.
The suspect immediately exited his vehicle and opened fire on Trooper Phillips with an automatic rifle, wounding him in the hand. Trooper Phillips was able to return fire and emptied his entire magazine but did not wound the suspect, who was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Trooper Lord pulled up to the scene without knowing that shots had been fired and was shot before he exited his patrol car. The suspect then returned and shot Trooper Phillips four more times, execution-style, killing him. He then stole Trooper Phillips' patrol car and drove to the office of a local newspaper where he shot and killed a part-time judge, with whom he had a long-standing grudge and a newspaper editor who had tried to intervene.
The suspect then drove into Vermont where he shot and wounded a New Hampshire Fish and Game officer who attempted to stop him. The officer's life was saved when a bullet struck his badge and ricocheted off. The suspect then stopped the patrol car and set up an ambush. Two Vermont state troopers located the patrol car and approached it with a canine unit. The canine alerted the troopers to the suspect who was in an ambush position on a nearby hill, giving the officers an opportunity to take cover as the suspect opened fire on them from the hill. Two New Hampshire state troopers and a United States Border Patrol agent were all shot and wounded in the final shootout with the suspect at that location.
Upon searching the suspect's property, officials found massive caches of booby-trapped bomb materials and weapons hidden in underground tunnels.
Trooper Phillips served in the U.S. Army as a military policeman in Panama from 1985-1989. He joined the New Hampshire State Police in 1990.