The Piscataqua River Bridge as seen from New Hampshire in August 2024. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer, file

The Maine and New Hampshire state police officers who shot a man on the Piscataqua River Bridge in August were justified in using deadly force, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey found.

The three officers — Sgt. Nicholas Cyr and trooper Stefan Wong-Wagner of New Hampshire, and Maine State Police Trooper Craig Nilsen — “reasonably believed” that 37-year-old Trent Weston “was about to use unlawful deadly force” against them, justifying the shooting, Frey wrote.

Weston, of Troy, New Hampshire, engaged police in an early-morning standoff in late August, after killing his wife and son, officials said at the time.

“He had admitted to killing his wife and had refused to comply with over two hours of negotiations requesting that he turn himself in. Instead, he picked up his pistol off the Jersey barrier, raised it first in the direction of the New Hampshire officers and then turned it toward his head and in the direction of the Maine officers,” Frey said.

The Office of the Maine Attorney General is in charge of investigating all police shootings in Maine. It has never found a police shooting to be unjustified.

Officers with the Kittery Police Department found Weston’s car parked on the southbound side of the bridge around 2:30 a.m., and reported that he stepped out of the vehicle with a gun in his hand and threw a cardboard box into the river below.

Weston had called 911 minutes earlier and said he killed his wife, 37-year-old Brittany Weston, Frey wrote in the report, dated March 27.

Nilsen arrived later in the morning, after attempts to negotiate with Weston began to drag on, Frey wrote. He hid with his rifle behind a Kittery police vehicle parked in the southbound lanes about 200 feet  from Weston.

Wong-Wagner and Cyr, the New Hampshire officers, both took cover behind a Kittery police vehicle on the northbound side of the bridge, about 150 feet from Weston, Frey said.

At this time, Weston was sitting on a Jersey barrier with the gun next to him, Frey said.

All three officers watched Weston lift up the gun, Frey’s report said. Nilsen watched Weston point it in the general direction of the New Hampshire police and fired at the man “to protect the New Hampshire officers,” Frey said.

Wong-Wagner watched Weston point the gun in his and other officers’ direction before aiming it “towards himself and in the direction of the Maine officers,” Frey said. Cyr watched Weston point the gun at his fellow New Hampshire officers, who both fired at Weston, Frey said.

Weston fell from the bridge after the shootings.

An autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later determined Weston’s cause of death to be suicide via a bullet to the head. The officers shot Weston in the upper left and right sides of his chest, the left side of his back, as well as his right arm, thigh and shoulder, Frey said.

Traffic camera footage shows that Weston shot himself before being struck by any of the officers’ bullets.

Weston’s wife, Brittany Weston, was found dead in the couple’s home, and 8-year-old Benson Weston, his son, was found dead in his father’s car, killed before the standoff on the bridge.