Londonderry, New Hampshire

From the Eagle Tribune of June 25, 2007

Murder victim shot at prowler months before he was killed

About 18 months before he was murdered, Jack Reid stepped from his home early one November morning, armed with a .357-caliber Magnum, and fired at an intruder crouching between two vehicles on his property, according to police reports.

On Nov. 8, 2003, two Londonderry police officers responded to 47 Rockingham Road, where Reid was living at the time. One used a police dog to track the prowler into the woods.

Reid told police he fired five shots at a man dressed in dark clothing, who stood up between the two vehicles and yelled "Jack!" before running into the woods. Reid said the man was hiding between a station wagon and a moving van.

State police who are investigating Reid's murder in June 2005 have made the three-year-old incident part of their investigation. On Tuesday, authorities charged John Brooks, 54, formerly of 68 High Range Road in Londonderry, and three other men with conspiring to kill Reid near 145 North Road in Deerfield, N.H.

The state attorney general's office has refused to disclose a motive for the killing, saying only police are still gathering evidence. Reid, 57, was living in a trailer in Derry at 25 Scobie Pond Road when he went missing June 27, 2005. His body was found a week later in a dump truck parked behind a Target department store in Saugus, about 40 miles from his home. The truck was one Reid used for his salvage collection business.

Londonderry police Officer Scott Balukonis and K-9 Officer John Perry wrote separate reports about the Nov. 8, 2003, incident. Those reports detail their actions in response to Reid's call to police, made around 1:06 a.m. Reid told police his dog, tied up outside his trailer, woke him up.

Zip, the police dog that responded to Reid's call, located a human scent where Reid said he spotted the man. He described the intruder to police as 5 feet 10 inches tall, wearing black clothing and a black hat. Reid said he did not recognize the prowler, even though the man had yelled his first name.

"Zip began to track strongly between the two vehicles," Perry wrote. The officer spotted fresh footprints and disturbed leaves through the woods as the police dog followed the scent.

Reid's longtime friend Paul Mackey told The Eagle-Tribune in a June 2006 interview that Reid "never got a good look at the person. He had an idea of who it could have been."

The reports make no mention of Reid telling police he suspected the identity of the prowler.

Balukonis advised Reid to lock his firearm inside the trailer prior to the officers arriving at the home. The department later cleared Reid of any wrongdoing.

Reid said he told the prowler to stop before the man stood up between the vehicles, Balukonis wrote. After the man stood, Reid told police, he started shooting.

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