MANCHESTER, N.H., May 7 (UPI) -- A New Hampshire man who held his 7-year-old daughter hostage for 35 hours was shot to death by police Saturday, authorities said.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin told reporters Saturday afternoon James D. Breton, 50, was shot after he had made statements "that he was not going to be removed from that building alive," the New Hampshire Union Leader reported.
The daughter was not physically injured, he said.
Joe Levasseur, a Manchester lawyer representing the mother of the 7-year-old girl, said the standoff with police began Thursday night after a woman told authorities she had been sexually assaulted by Breton more than a year ago.
Strelzin said Breton refused to let investigating officers check on his daughter and displayed a handgun, the Union Leader said.
The incident dragged on until Breton was shot about 7 a.m. Saturday when state police SWAT officers tried to check on him and his daughter.
"As they did that, he reacted extremely angrily to the officers," Strelzin said. "They were right up against the building. ... At that point, he had a handgun, it appears he had a handgun, and one of the state police SWAT team members ended up firing, hitting Mr. Breton and killing him in the process. At that point, another SWAT team member actually reached in and pulled the 7-year-old girl out of the apartment and got her away from the scene."
Authorities will conduct an investigation into the use of deadly force, Strelzin said.
