KITTERY, M.E. (MyKeeneNow) – A state investigation has determined that police officers were justified in using deadly force during a standoff last summer on the Piscataqua River Bridge, which resulted in the death of a New Hampshire man.

Shortly after 2 a.m. on August 29, 2024, authorities in York, Maine received a call from a man who reported that he had killed his wife in Troy, New Hampshire. The man was identified as Trent Weston, 37, of Troy.

According to a report released by the Maine Attorney General’s office last week a Kittery Police Officer who was on patrol drove to the bridge and found Weston’s vehicle sitting in the center of the bridge. The officer parked behind the vehicle and Weston emerged, armed with a handgun.

Weston ignored multiple commands from the officer to drop the weapon. A negotiator with the Southern Maine Special Response team then arrived and found Weston sitting on the jersey barrier along the edge of the bridge. The negotiator got him to put the gun down, but he eventually reached for it again and pointed it in the direction of the New Hampshire and Maine State officers who had arrived on scene.

At that point Maine State Police Trooper Craig Nilsen, New Hampshire State Police (NHSP) Trooper Stefan Wong-Wagner, and Sgt. Nicholas Cyr, Assistant Commander of the NHSP SWAT team, fired at Weston. However, surveillance video on the bridge shows that Weston had shot himself in the head prior to being hit by the bullets fired by the officers.

The Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner conducted a post-mortem examination and concluded that Weston died as the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound the head. He had also been shot in the upper left and right sides of his chest, the left side of his back, his right arm, his right thigh, and right shoulder.

Authorities later discovered Weston’s 8-year-old son deceased in a car seat inside his vehicle, determining he had been shot from within the car. Weston’s wife was also found murdered in their home in Troy. Evidence collected from Weston’s body, the scene in Troy, and from the vehicle determined that all three bullets were fired from the same firearm, identified as Weston’s.

Following the shooting, Weston fell from the bridge into the river below. His firearm has not been recovered.

Since it was an officer-involved shooting that involved two NHSP Troopers, the Maine AG’s office took point on the investigation. In the report issued on March 27, 2025, Attorney General Aaron Frey concluded that Nilsen Wong-Wagner, and Cyr reasonably believed they were acting in defense of themselves and the other officers at the time they used deadly force.