HENNIKER, N.H. — Police were continuing to search for a suspect late Sunday evening after a downtown Henniker shooting in the middle of the night left three people injured and prompted a campus lockdown at New England College.
At about 3 a.m. Sunday, Henniker Police and State Police responded to a 911 call of a reported shooting at 4 Bridge St., in the town center, police said at a press conference Sunday morning.
Authorities found two women and a man with non-life threatening injuries, police said.
They were treated at Concord Hospital and later released.
Two of the victims are current NEC students and one is a former NEC student, NEC Vice President for Academic Affairs Wayne Lesperance said.
The events prompted a lockdown in town and on campus for most of the day. Despite lifting that lockdown, New England College canceled classes Monday to allow students to receive counseling services, Lesperance said.
A scheduled Monday stop by presidential hopeful Deval Patrick was also canceled for similar reasons, Lesperance said.
Since the shooting, the State Police Major Crimes Unit has been working with the Henniker Police Department to locate a suspect, according to Paul Raymond, public information with New Hampshire Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
But as of 4 p.m. Sunday, no arrest had been made, Raymond said. The Henniker Police Department could not be reached for comment Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, few details were released about the shooting itself Sunday, which occurred at the heart of the town in front of the Henniker Pharmacy, just across the river from the New England College campus.
In the immediate hours after the shooting, a State Police tactical team cleared the college campus, Henniker police Chief Matthew French said at a press conference in the morning.
The town and campus were then put on a “shelter in place” lockdown at the advice of French. That lockdown was lifted sometime before 4 p.m., though authorities did not detail why.
The events rattled the New England College campus, which hosts 1,100 residential students.
Throughout the day, students on campus were given the option to assemble in the Simon Center, according to an official at the state’s Department of Safety.
The college provided four counselors on campus to help students process the event. Additional counseling was offered by the state Homeland Security agency.
Swarms of officers patrolled the down town Sunday, with sections of road closed to traffic and areas outside the pharmacy building marked with crime-scene tape.
As the lockdown kicked in, school officials asked students returning to campus to first check in at the Henniker Community Center.
Those restrictions had been removed Sunday afternoon, and students were free to travel across campus and continue studying.
Police continued to investigate.