The homeowner, Richard Verville, who suffered from significant mental health issues, killed the worker, tried to kill himself and engaged police in an hours-long standoff at his home in Londonderry on Tuesday, they said. Verville, 69, was hospitalised in Massachusetts and died there yesterday, they said.
Police and SWAT team members had responded to Verville's home on Tuesday. The neighbourhood was evacuated, and several nearby schools were placed on lockdown because of the police activity in the area.
The attorney general's office said Verville shot and killed Daniel Rabideau while Rabideau was working on his heating system before shooting himself.
"What looks like happened is, the homeowner shot a person who came into the home to perform some services, and then he turned the gun on himself, so it looks like it was an intended murder-suicide," Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin said.
Rabideau's widow, Carole Rabideau, of Manchester, where City Fuel is based, said she was unaware of any previous contact between her husband and Verville. She said her husband, who was 59, didn't deserve to die.
She said that except for driving in the winter, she never worried about her husband's job being dangerous.
"I remember my husband always, always telling me in the wintertime how many senior citizens he would go and give heat to," she said.
Neighbours described Verville as paranoid. They said he moved into the neighbourhood in 2012 and handed out letters in which he said he was under government surveillance.
Kurt Kiley, who lives across the street, told the Eagle Tribune he had a no-trespass order against Verville, who he said threatened him in the past.
It was unclear what sparked the shooting.
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