Franconia, New Hampshire

From the Boston Globe of May 13, 2007

Feud turned deadly in N.H.

Passerby guns down police officer's killer

New Hampshire authorities said yesterday that they will not press charges against a former Marine who stepped into a deadly shooting and killed a 24-year-old high school dropout who had moments earlier fatally shot a police officer.

The former Marine, Gregory W. Floyd, 49, was driving with his son along Route 116 in Franconia on Friday night when he saw Liko Kenney, 24, shoot Franconia Police Corporal Bruce McKay, 48, four times in the torso. After Kenney drove his Toyota Celica over McKay as the officer lay on the ground, Floyd grabbed the officer's service weapon and shot and killed Kenney.

Authorities said the double shooting was the bloody climax of a long-simmering feud between McKay, a 12-year-veteran of the three-member department, and Kenney, a cousin of World Cup champion skier Bode Miller.

In 2003, Kenney was convicted of assaulting McKay, authorities said. Kenney had contended that McKay had assaulted him, breaking his jaw and leaving him in a coma, according to Bode Miller's father, Woody.

"It was a bad mixture waiting to happen," said Connie McKenzie , a nurse who said she had tried to ad minister CPR to McKay on the lawn in front of her 18th-century farmhouse on Route 116. "They hated each other."

New Hampshire's attorney general, Kelly A. Ayotte, said Floyd will not face charges because he was justified in using deadly force.

"Based on the results of the investigation, our conclusion is that Gregory Floyd's actions were justified based upon dangerous circumstances confronted with and efforts to assist McKay," Ayotte said at a news conference in Concord.

Captain Russell Conte of the New Hampshire State Police condemned the slaying of McKay, a New York native who had a 9-year-old daughter, Courtney, and in June was to marry his fiancée, who has a 14-year-old daughter, Kylea.

"Something this egregious affects everyone in law enforcement, and it is the ultimate act of defiance for someone to shoot a police officer when he's doing his duties," Conte said.

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