3 dead after 15-hour standoff with police at hotel

A 15-hour standoff at a New Hampshire hotel ended Thursday with three people dead, including two who had barricaded themselves inside a room and shot repeatedly at police and drug enforcement agents.

Authorities, including a SWAT team, swarmed the area around the Quality Inn in Manchester, closing off a bustling commercial neighborhood filled with car dealerships, a strip mall and several restaurants.

It began Wednesday evening when Stephen Marshall, 51, of Manchester, climbed out of a hotel window. Armed with an automatic handgun, Marshall "engaged" with a Manchester police officer and two Drug Enforcement
SWAT team members eventually deployed chemical agents inside the room. At the same time, MacDonald said Manchester police officers "attempted to speak with these individuals and seek a peaceful resolution."
"It's disheartening that we have to face incidents like what we had to deal with today," Manchester Police Chief Carlo Capano said. "When you think about a nine-hour period of officers being shot at as much as they were ... we are truly blessed that none of those officers were hurt today."
"This remains an active investigation. It is in its early stages and, as such, we are limited in the information we can provide," MacDonald told reporters, adding that the crime scene was "complex."
Michael Hughes, a shift manager at the Manchester Poker Room & Casino, which is next to the hotel, recalled how there were about 250 people inside playing bingo and other games when a few customers standing outside heard gunshots. That prompted the business go into a lockdown, eventually escorting customers five at a time past the heavy police presence around 9:30 pm