When the shooter entered the Prime restaurant at the Sky Meadow Country Club Saturday night, Robert DeCesare reportedly stood up to protect his family from harm.
More details about Saturday’s mass shooting emerged in the wake of the horror that saw DeCesare killed and two other people suffer gunshot wounds. But the shooter, 23-year-old Hunter Nadeau, remains an enigma.
Robert DeCesare, Jr.
(Provided by the DeCesare family)
Charlene DeCesare told the Associated Press that Nadeau appeared to be targeting an employee when her husband moved to protect her and their daughter. Nadeau shot Decesare several times, according to the autopsy.
“My husband got caught in the fire trying to protect us,” she told the AP.
In the ensuing chaos, one patron hit Nadeau with a chair, and others acted to stop his violence, witnesses said. One other employee was shot, as well as another patron.
According to the Associated Press and additional sources, Nadeau is from Maine and was living in Nashua with his grandmother. The young man lived in Arkansas for a few years and attended high school there before moving to Nashua.
In February, Nadeau allegedly pushed down a male manager at a supermarket who was trying to assist him with the self-checkout. Nadeau was charged with a simple assault misdemeanor that was resolved this month in court. The court agreed to place the case on file on the condition that Nadeau remained on good behavior for a year. If he stayed out of trouble for a year, the charge would be dismissed entirely.
Nadeau remains in jail on preventative detention and is due in court Oct. 1 for a probable cause hearing. He’s currently charged with one count of second-degree murder, though more charges are anticipated.
Attorney General John Formella said that while Nadeau was heard to shout “Free Palestine” during his short rampage, the motive is not believed to be based on any particular ideology. Formella said Nadeau was heard shouting several different things, in what investigators believe was an attempt to create chaos in the moment.
Formella’s statement has not quieted speculation that the shooter was motivated by pro-Palestine or anti-Israel politics. National media figures, including Jim Geraghty of National Review and Guy Benson of Fox News, have suggested that there needs to be a more aggressive effort to investigate Nadeau’s motives.
