A 25-year-old man in Keene was shot by police after a 911 call that reported a “person in distress.”

Officers with the Keene Police Department responded to the call late Tuesday afternoon and found the man, identified as Cullen Costa, outside with a weapon. During their encounter, Costa was shot by police gunfire and is now hospitalized in critical but stable condition, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. No officers were injured.

The attorney general’s office is now investigating the shooting to determine whether the use of deadly force was justified, a process that typically lasts several months or even more than a year, depending on the number of witnesses. Officials have not yet released the name of the officer under investigation, which is common.

Police have shot three other people — one resulting in a fatality — in New Hampshire so far this year.

Of the 13 people shot by police in 2023 and 2024, six were experiencing a mental health crisis.

In 2024, police officers used deadly force nine times, with all but one incident resulting in a loss of life. So far, the AG’s office has ruled use of deadly force legally justified in every completed investigation of incidents that occurred last year. The last time an officer was charged for their involvement in someone’s death was last February, when a former corrections officer was charged with second-degree murder for causing the death of an incarcerated person in 2023. Matthew Millar was accused of using his arms and/or legs to apply force and pressure to the chest and neck of a patient, causing deadly asphyxiation.

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.