By Jonathan Phelps
The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Three Manchester Police officers were found legally justified in the shooting death of 24-year-old Nickenley Turenne in December, which has had family and friends of Turenne holding multiple rallies seeking answers and the release of body-worn camera footage.
The 52-page report released by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office found that it was “objectively reasonable” for the officers to believe Turenne was “about to use, or was actively using, deadly force” when the three officers shot and killed him, according to a final report issued by the office Wednesday.
The Attorney General’s Office also released five videos from multiple officers Wednesday afternoon showing Turenne failing to show his hands “despite dozens of commands,” according to the report. One of the videos recorded Turenne as saying, “Tell my family that I love them.”
The Union Leader had requested the video from the Attorney General’s Office and the Manchester Police Department in December while the case was still open.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined Turenne’s cause of death to be multiple gunshot wounds, and the manner of death was homicide. A toxicology report revealed the presence of cannabinoids in his blood.
Turenne’s threats were geared toward officer Andre Chan , according to the report. The other officers involved in the shooting were Brandon Baliko and Devin Lambert .
After the shooting, it was determined Turenne did not have a gun. Evidence also shows he may have tried to kill himself and was found to have a single .40 caliber Smith & Wesson live bullet in his pants.
The three officers, along with Officer Patrick Sherry , saw Turenne holding an object they “reasonably believed to be a firearm with a weapon mounted white light,” according to the report. Turenne’s movements included taking a firing position after pulling the object from his pocket or waistband, the report says.
“The evidence gathered from the investigation establishes that the officers’ beliefs were honestly held and reasonable under the circumstances,” the report says.
The final investigation report was based on the totality of the circumstances and all available evidence, including witness interviews, physical evidence, scene analysis, reports, court records, and available video footage, the report says.
Since Turenne’s death, family and friends have demanded body-worn camera footage from the officers to be released. Turenne was a Black Haitian immigrant who moved to the United States with his family at a young age.
Ophelia Burnett , a healing justice program associate with the American Friends Service Committee , said she met with the AG’s office for nearly three hours on Wednesday when she and family members saw the body-worn camera footage for the first time.
“I, alongside the family, have been waiting six months for this moment especially to view the body cam footage so we need this time to process,” she said in an email to the Union Leader.
The report says the body-worn camera footage is consistent with the officers’ accounts on Turenne’s actions in the early morning hours of Dec. 6, 2025 . Turenne kept his hands concealed in his pockets and refused to show both hands “despite dozens of commands” before running off and jumping fences, according to the report.
The incident started just before 4:45 a.m. in the area of South Mammoth Road near the Green Acres Elementary School for a report of a suspicious vehicle. A man, later identified as Turenne, was found asleep in the driver’s seat and an unnamed woman in the passenger seat by Officer Joshua Chery .
When awakened by an officer tapping his window, Turenne pulled away in the car before crashing into a fence on South Mammoth Road . He fled on foot and left the woman, later identified as Nicole Murray .
At one point, Turenne was cornered by Chan and Lambert and ordered to show his hands and get on the ground.
“Officer Chan described Mr. Turenne’s posture as taking ‘a shooter’s stance’ — both hands holding the object like he was holding a handgun, with his body squared off looking directly at Officer Chan. Officer Chan noted the light glaring in his face, and heard someone yell, ‘He has a gun,’” the report says.
The object in his hand was later identified as a Krosslan flashlight.
As part of the exchange, Baliko recognized Turenne as the same man arrested on Dec. 4 for smashing Murray’s laptop, slider door and bedroom window, “and was the same person who had reportedly gone into Ms. Murray’s apartment to retrieve a gun magazine.”
A bulletin had gone out four hours earlier that he might be in possession of a firearm.
The report says Turenne had “no less than four active court orders” preventing him from having contact with Murray, which included two suspended sentences, a bail order and a civil order of protection.
“This may have resulted in his incarceration due to the imposition of criminal sentences and/or the revocation of his bail,” the report says. “It could also have led to additional criminal charges for violating the civil protection order and operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.”
Murray also said earlier in the night Turenne told her he would rather “take himself out” than return to jail and showed her a bullet he had cheeked in his mouth. Similar comments were made to a friend three hours before the encounter with police, according to the report.
“He also said that he had a plan for how to kill himself, and he wanted to talk to his sister or write her a note,” the report said. Murray said it seemed like his decision was made up and there is nothing she could have done to stop it.
According to the report, “With only one live round of ammunition and no firearm of his own, all of these statements and actions are evidence leading to the conclusion that Mr. Turenne wanted to provoke officers into killing him if the alternative was being taken into custody.”
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