Gerald Towne, 51, of Hooksett was arrested Sunday morning on four counts of criminal threatening with a deadly weapon, and a single count each of criminal restraint, simple assault, suspended registration and driving after revocation or suspension, after Towne allegedly threatened a man with a gun off Commerce Way.
Londonderry Detective Christopher Olson said that on Sunday, Aug. 31, just before 7 a.m. police responded to a report of a man coming out of the woods by the Enterprise rental car wash by the Manchester Boston Regional Airport.
“The man approached one of the employees and said, ‘I need help. My brother is being held at gunpoint in the woods,’” Olson said. He said police went to the scene and the brother showed them how to get into the woods to the spot where his relative was being held at gunpoint.
Olson said the officers came upon a vehicle that the brother had described and made contact with the brother.
“Mr. Towne was taken into custody without incident,” Olson said.
Olson said the two brothers are in their early 20s and are “temporarily homeless,” and were put in contact with Towne.
“There was no relationship with him whatsoever prior to this evening,” Olson said. “So they were going to spend the night with Mr. Towne in his vehicle in the woods because they had nowhere else to go. In the morning, one of the brothers alleges that Mr. Towne was acting very strangely and began threatening his brother.”
Olson said the brother alleged that a firearm was shown as well as a six-inch-long fixed blade knife, and a rock was alleged to have been used “as a threatening device.
“All three of those things were in fact seized in the vehicle or the vehicle’s immediate area after a search warrant was conducted on the vehicle,” Olson said. “While Mr. Towne was threatening one brother, the other brother ran for help. There was also Spice synthetic drugs found at the scene but it is unknown who those belonged to at this time.”
Olson said both brothers were listed as victims.
Towne was arraigned and held on $10,000 cash bail and remains incarcerated at the Rockingham County Jail in Brentwood.