Convicted felon now charged with being armed career criminal after shooting incident on Merrimack Street

MANCHESTER, NH – SWAT was called out Monday afternoon when someone reported a dog was shot on Merrimack Street.

As it turned out, no dog was wounded.  Witnesses told police two dogs were chasing two men, one of whom fired a shot into the air to scare off the animals.  Police arrested two men on the scene, one for being an armed career criminal and the other for resisting arrest.

In Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District on Tuesday, Curtis Massey, 25, of 421 Merrimack St., Apt. 1, was ordered held on $10,000 cash/surety bail.  He entered not guilty pleas to being an armed career criminal, falsifying physical evidence, being a felon in possession of a dangerous weapon and resisting arrest/detention.

Ayden Rainey, 29, of Manchester, is charged with resisting arrest.  He is not charged directly with the incident and is free on personal recognizance bail.

Massey was arrested a little after 4 p.m. Monday after police received a call of a man shooting a dog in the area of 435 Merrimack St.  Ultimately, police were told by one witness that the shooter, dressed in a red hooded sweatshirt, fired at the dogs; another witness said he believed the man with the gun had a white hoodie.  When arrested, Massey was wearing a black and red patterned T-shirt.

According to court documents, witnesses told police one of the men they were looking for was in a car parked in front of 421 Merrimack St.  When other officers arrived, the man was walking away from the scene.  They told him to stop but he ran inside 421 Merrimack St.

Officers contacted the building’s landlord who told them the first-floor apartment was occupied but the second-floor apartment was not rented.

SWAT surrounded the building and when officers entered it, they found Massy in the kitchen of the second-floor apartment.  They found a Heritage Rough Rider .22 revolver hidden in the upper tank of the toilet in the bathroom.

Massey was arrested and taken to the police station.  Massey told detectives he did not fire the gun but was present when someone else fired a shot.  He said he took the gun from the shooter, ran inside 421 Merrimack St. when officers told him to stop, hid from them in the second-floor apartment and then stashed the gun in the bathroom toilet.

Massey’s criminal history dates back to 2015 and includes convictions for reckless conduct, deadly weapon; robbery with a firearm and burglary. The reckless conduct charges stemmed from an April 27, 2021 incident in which Massey was shot three times during a melee on North Commercial Street.  He maintained he was acting in self-defense when he drove his car into five men who were fighting.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of reckless conduct and was given a 12-month sentence on one, charge and 12 months, with six months suspended, on the other.