Police: Man in ICU after woman struck him in head with metal pole

MANCHESTER, NH – A woman is under arrest, charged with repeatedly hitting a man in the head with a metal pole causing him to suffer a fractured skull and brain bleed.

Kalee Chaput, 32, of 1011 Elm St., is being detained on a charge of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon and bail jumping, for failing to appear for a June 13, 2023 hearing in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District.

According to court records, Chaput was arrested after Officer Matthew Mara responded to a 911 call at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday at Pine and Manchester streets, outside the Families in Transition adult shelter, for a reported fight.

When he arrived he found an unconscious man, identified in court records only by the initials TV, on the ground.

Manchester Fire Prevention Capt. Peter Lennon told Mara he witnessed the fight and that Chaput struck TV with a camping tent pole.  After she hit him, Lennon said a man with Chaput punched TV before he fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

Lennon told Mara TV suffered a serious head injury, based on pupil activity and blood on his head.  Lennon could identify Chaput because he had met her on several other occasions, Mara wrote.

Other Manchester Fire Department employees told Mara that one of their co-workers was following Chaput and the other man involved in the alleged assault.  Mara relayed that information to other officers who stopped Chaput and the man, identified as Harry Moy, 41, of Manchester, on Walnut Street

Moy is charged with simple assault.  He is free on $250 cash/surety bail.

Chaput told police she was under her tent when she heard Moy arguing with someone.  She looked outside and saw her father “Richard” and Moy fighting with TV.  Chaput said she grabbed a three-foot black pipe and started hitting TV with it.  She did not recall how many times she hit TV but said it was more than once.

She said she struck TV to protect herself, Richard, and Moy from TV.  Chaput said she dropped the pipe where the fight took place.  Mara recovered it next to Chaput’s tent.

Mara then viewed video footage from FUSUS, a camera platform that allows police to monitor video feeds from public and privately-owned sources, in one place, in real-time.  Mara wrote that the video quality did not have the best resolution but it recorded TV approaching the area of Moy’s tent and property.

Mara said, from the video, it is clear an argument broke out between the two men.  TV threw Moy’s property into the street and seconds later, a man presumed to be Richard, started fighting with TV.  TV is thrown to the ground, got back up and then Chaput struck him.  After she hit him, Mara said Moy punched TV to the ground.  Once TV hit the ground, both Chaput and Moy fled the area.

TV was taken to the Elliot Hospital, where at 5:25 p.m. Wednesday, Mara said he remained unconscious in the Intensive Care Unit.

According to court records, Chaput was out on bail on two drug charges.  The first was from March 6, 2022, when she was charged with prohibited possession of crack cocaine.  The second charge was from April 21, 2022, for possession of .04 grams of heroin.

On Jan. 31, 2023, a condition of bail was she was to participate in an intake evaluation at Door Way Open Access and comply with treatment.  On May 24, 2023, an updated bail order was that she was to meaningfully participate and continue in treatment at Better Life Partners.

The court record, however, shows she failed to appear at three status hearings, two in May of 2023, and a third earlier this month for which she is charged with bail jumping.  In that case, Judge N. William Delker wrote if she did not appear, she would be held in preventive detention (without bail) “to facilitate the resolution of these matters once and for all.”