To say the shooting incident that took place on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at the Planet Fitness Center was a hair-raising experience for residents working out, it would be putting it mildly.
Londonderry High School student Megan Plaza was just a few feet away from the room where a young Bedford man began shooting.
Plaza said she was thinking, wait, this is Londonderry, it couldn’t be happening here.
She quickly remembered her training through the ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate) Program offered at the high school and sought cover.
I didn’t realize what it was at first. I thought someone had just dropped some weights as she went through her regular cardio training on the treadmill.
“Then I saw the two boys that work at the center run from behind the counter and duck into the Black Card Room.”
She added, “The ALICE training helped me to make faster intuitive decisions.”
She quickly ran into the locker room and hid inside an open locker and waited for police to arrive.
She called her dad from inside the locker, who was also working out at the gym, and he was unaware the incident had even taken place, but ran into her location.
During questioning after the incident, Plaza said workers told police the shooter was an employee from the gym that had gotten into an argument with another employee one day earlier.
She said even before the shooting, while she was working out, she noticed an argument outside the entrance of the center.
The shot was fired in the employee room of the facility, but no one was hit by the shot.
According to Plaza the incident happened at 4:57 p.m. and it wasn’t long before local police were at the scene.
Not many details have been released so far on the incident. The Londonderry Police Department was contacted for information and responded that the State Attorney General would be releasing information.
According to the state, in three press releases from Attorney General John M. Formella, the incident began with police first being called to a business on Orchard View Drive for a report of shots fired.
Responding officers encountered a subject and during that encounter the subject was shot by police.
The exact circumstances surrounding this incident are now under active investigation. More information will be released as it becomes available.”
The second press release states, “The incident began with police first being called to a Planet Fitness gym on Orchard View Drive in Londonderry for a report of a shot being fired. Officers responded and confirmed that while no one was injured, the individual identified as having fired the gunshot had left the gym.
Officers located identifying information for the individual, an adult male, and developed a name, address, and vehicle description for him. His vehicle was then found nearby, and officers conducted a motor vehicle stop of the car on Winding Pond Road off Orchard View Drive.
According to initial police dispatch notes the adult male in the vehicle was reportedly armed and confronted the officers. During this encounter, several gunshots were fired. The adult male was struck by the gunfire. Members of the Londonderry Fire Department responded to render medical aid however, the adult male was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
The release states person was identified as Calvin M. Ly-Bishop, 23, of Bedford.
Officers developed a vehicle description of Ly-Bishop’s vehicle and it was quickly found on Winding Pond Road near its intersection with Lincoln Drive. When officers were conducting a motor vehicle stop of the car, witnesses report Ly-Bishop came out of his car armed with a handgun. During the encounter, gunshots were fired between Ly-Bishop and three Londonderry Police officers. Ly-Bishop was struck by gunfire, and despite medical intervention, was pronounced deceased on scene.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jennie V. Duval conducted an autopsy on Ly-Bishop where it was determined that Mr. Ly-Bishop’s cause of death was gunshots wounds of the chest, and that the manner of his death was homicide. As used by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, homicide is defined as the killing of one person by another.
The investigation into this event by the New Hampshire Department of Justice with the assistance of the New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit is ongoing. The identity of the three officers who used deadly force will be disclosed once formal interviews of all persons involved in the incident occur.