The off-duty Peterborough police officer involved in the fatal shooting in July has returned to work.
Peterborough Police Chief Scott Guinard said Officer Douglas MacPherson was cleared to return after a psychological evaluation, per the department’s use-of-force policy. He officially began working again on Sept. 21.
Guinard said the state investigation had concluded, allowing Peterborough to conduct its own internal review.
The attorney general’s office contradicted that statement. As of Monday morning, the Department of Justice Homicide Unit’s investigation into the incident is still active and ongoing, a spokesperson told the Ledger-Transcript.
MacPherson did not respond to a request for comment.
The Peterborough Police Department’s use-of-force policy requires the chief to place the officer on administrative leave “pending the completion of a review board or any other pending investigations.” During administrative leave, the policy says, the officer must attend a “psychological debriefing” and, before returning to active duty, must requalify on each of their authorized firearms.
Despite being told the state’s investigation is over, Guinard said the department hasn’t received the state’s final report on the case.
MacPherson was in his yard with his young children on the evening of July 5 when the shooting occurred, according to the attorney general’s office, which investigates all homicides in New Hampshire. A 911 call reported the event as an “altercation involving two adult neighbors” near Grove Street.
Responding officers found 24-year-old Jack Hutchings, a Peterborough resident, dead in the driveway from an apparent gunshot wound. MacPherson suffered “stab/incised wounds” and was brought to the local hospital, according to a press release issued at the time.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Hutchings’ death a homicide five days later. Since MacPherson was off-duty, the incident is not being investigated as an officer-involved shooting.
Instead, the attorney general’s office and the New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit are investigating whether the shooting was justified under New Hampshire’s “stand your ground” law, which allows the use of deadly force in a life-threatening situation and removes any responsibility to retreat from attack when it’s safe to do so.