Authorities investigating New Hampshire church shooting: Governor

Wedding guests tackled a gunman after he allegedly opened fire in a Pelham, New Hampshire, church on Saturday morning and shot two people, the local police chief said.

“They basically gang-tackled him” and held him until police arrived, Pelham Police Chief Joseph Roark told reporters.

The suspect later was identified as Dale Halloway, 37. He’s been charged with first-degree assault, according to a statement from Gordon J. MacDonald, the state’s attorney general.

One of the people shot was Bishop Stanley Choate, 75, who last was listed in serious condition at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.

Claire McMullen, 60, was shot in the arm and treated at a local hospital, where she was listed in good condition.

A third person, Mark Castiglione, 60, was struck in the head with an object and treated and released from a local hospital.

Siobhan Lopez/WMUR-TV via AP

Halloway, according to the attorney general’s statement, also faces a count of purposely and knowingly causing bodily injury by means of a deadly weapon. He’s accused of shooting the bishop in the chest.

Roark, earlier on Sunday, had declined to say anything about the shooter’s motive or his relationship to the couple or the New England Pentecostal Church.

But the department said in a written statement: “Preliminary investigation of the matter indicates that this incident does not appear to be a random event.”

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Police responded around 10:12 a.m. local time and said the suspect was discovered “being subdued by guests of the wedding.” A handgun was recovered at the scene.

State police and the Pelham Police Department are continuing to investigate the incident.

Church services on Sunday have been canceled.

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