A woman is dead after New Hampshire State Police shot her during a traffic stop in the small Grafton County town of Bath on Thursday evening. Troopers had stopped a vehicle they had been seeking earlier in the day when they encountered a woman allegedly armed with what appeared to be a handgun, according to investigators.
Police fired shots at the intersection of Route 302 and Route 112, according to NBC10 Boston. The woman was wounded and taken to an area hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. Authorities have not identified her, and officials have not said why police were seeking the vehicle earlier in the day, per the outlet's report.
Part of Route 112 was closed at its intersection with Route 302 in Bath Thursday night as investigators secured and processed the scene, according to WMUR-TV. That intersection forms the main roadway connection through Bath, a rural town of 1,077 residents along the Ammonoosuc River, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2020.
State Investigators Take Over, as Is Standard
New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella's office has been notified of the shooting details, per attribution from the AG's office, and the case is now under investigation. Under standard state Department of Justice protocol, the Attorney General's Office and the New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit independently investigate every officer-involved shooting in the state, with the identities of officers who use deadly force routinely withheld until formal interviews take place, typically within five to 10 business days, according to the New Hampshire Department of Justice.
That means key questions — including the officers' assignments, the exact sequence of gunfire, and the identity of the woman who died — are likely to remain unanswered for days or longer while the investigation proceeds. The report does not indicate that anyone else was hurt in the incident, nor does it describe any ongoing threat to the public.
Not Bath's First Brush With Deadly Force
Thursday's shooting is not the first time violence involving police or firearms has struck this small town. In July 2015, two officers fatally shot 33-year-old Hagen Esty-Lennon near Route 302 in Bath after he approached them with a knife, an encounter the state Attorney General's Office later deemed legally justified, according to CBS News. And just this past June, Bath Police Sergeant Camden Elliott discharged his duty firearm during a shooting in neighboring Landaff that injured 42-year-old Richard Chamberlin, per the state Department of Justice.
Bath also saw a double fatal shooting on Tyler Way in October 2025 that led to the arrest and January 2026 indictment of 73-year-old Charles Readey on second-degree murder charges, as reported by InDepthNH.org. Those cases, like Thursday's shooting, fell under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General's Major Crime Unit, which handles serious violent crime investigations across rural Grafton County.
Part of a Statewide Pattern in 2026
Thursday's shooting adds to a string of officer-involved shootings the state Department of Justice has investigated so far in 2026. In April, an officer-involved shooting during a traffic stop on Main Street in Ashland left an armed male suspect dead and an Ashland officer wounded by gunfire. Days earlier, New Hampshire State Police and local officers responded to a domestic disturbance in Northfield, where an officer fatally shot 27-year-old Megan Whiting after she allegedly brandished a knife, according to WMUR-TV.
Other cases this year included an armed confrontation in Raymond that left suspect Matthew J. Masse dead and a responding Nottingham officer injured, and a May incident in Milan in which an officer shot and wounded 37-year-old Zachary Gagne after he allegedly approached officers with a knife. Each of those cases followed the same state-mandated investigation protocol now underway in Bath.
Hoodline previously covered a chase-related shooting in Charlestown investigated under the same state protocol. As with that case, officials have not released the Bath officers' names, and the circumstances that led state police to seek the vehicle earlier Thursday remain unexplained.
