HAVERHILL — City and state police officers with handguns, assault rifles and a search dog combed neighborhoods off Hilldale Avenue yesterday looking for five men, one of whom shot a man in the foot during a home invasion on Primrose Street, according to police.
State troopers warned some neighbors to stay inside their homes with their children during the early afternoon incident. A search helicopter hovered over the area as police looked for the men, who police believe tried to rob the house. They wore dark clothes and masks during the home invasion, police said.
Arrested were Luis Torres, 23, of 3 Evergreen Drive in the city's Bradford section; Jason Perry, 19, 41 McIntosh Road, Danville, N.H.; and Steven Listro Jr., 18, 4 Birdsall Lane, Atkinson, N.H.
They were charged with home invasion, assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a firearm), and carrying a firearm without being licensed. They were to be arraigned today in Haverhill District Court. Police said they are seeking arrest warrants for two other men.
Police said they also seized two handguns — a .38-caliber and a .22-caliber — along with a black ski mask, and blue and red do-rag bandanas.
Police said victim Gerald Boucher, 25, who lives with his mother in a first-floor apartment at 352 Primrose St. near St. James Cemetery, was pistol-whipped in the head and shot in the left foot.
He was treated at Lawrence General Hospital and released. Police said the home invaders know Boucher and robbery is a possible motive. Police refused to say what the men wanted to steal.
"This was not a random act and was planned by the suspects," read a press release from Haverhill police.
Sgt. John Arahovites, spokesman for the Police Department, stressed that police want residents to understand the home invasion was a planned event.
"In most home invasions, the suspects have a target, whether it's drugs, money, jewelry, whatever," he said.
The shooting occurred shortly after 1 p.m. at the Primrose Street home, which is near the south end of St. James Cemetery.
The back of the cemetery is next to Little River. Land on the other side of the river leads to Hilldale Avenue, and police believe the suspects crossed the river after the shooting. They may have walked on large sewer pipes that cross over the river in that area, police said.
Arahovites said this is how the home invasion occurred: The men parked a block away from the home, and one of them went to the door and knocked.
When Boucher answered the door, the men forced their way in. Arahovites refused to say if Boucher was shot in the foot during a struggle.
All the men were carrying guns. When police received a 911 call about the shooting, the men ran toward the nearby cemetery and a wooded area along Little River, eventually crossing to the Hilldale Avenue area.
The normally quiet Willie Street, which is lined with well-kept two- and three-story homes, was for a time the focus of an intense search by officers as well as a police dog that traveled from yard to yard following the suspects' scent. As many as eight officers were involved in the search at its peak, Arahovites said.
With the help of neighbors, police found two of the men hiding under the porch of a home on Willie Street, off Hilldale Avenue, about 2 p.m. and also tracked down the third suspect.
A woman who lives on Willie Street told The Eagle-Tribune that she had just spoken to police in front of her home and was walking back to her house when she noticed two men hiding under her first-floor porch. She said she called out to police officers, who took the men into custody.
Willie Street resident Leon LaPeirriere, 72, told The Eagle-Tribune that his street seldom sees police activity.
"This is a quiet neighborhood," LaPeirriere said. "Nothing like this has happened in the 43 years I've lived here."
Willie Street resident Margaret Murphy, 43, was just getting home from work when she noticed all the activity.
"I've never seen this many police cars on my street," Murphy said. "This is a pretty good neighborhood."
School Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan said a school central office employee returning from lunch told him that police were involved in something, and that he should call police to see if there was a need to lock down city schools.
Haverhill High is less than a half-mile from where police searched for the suspects. Tilton Elementary School is less than a mile away.
"Police advised me that we didn't need to go into a lockdown," Buchanan said. "If there was a lockdown, we'd do it for all buildings. When we have a lockdown, we tell everybody."
This was the second home invasion in the last 11 months in that area of Primrose Street. On June 18, several men forced their way into a home on Dexter Street, less than a quarter-mile from the site of yesterday's shooting.
Police said the men entered a house at 15 Dexter St. about 11:30 a.m. and forced homeowner Daniel Michaud, 43, to the floor, holding a shotgun to his face while his wife and 8-year-old son were home. Michaud fought back, and one of the men pulled out a handgun, according to police reports.
A shot was fired and it grazed Michaud's head, the reports said. The men then ran out of the house and toward Franklin Street, the reports said. So far, there have been no other arrests.
Michaud went to the hospital, and police showed him photos that included a picture of James Evans, then 23, who was living at 58 Central St.
Michaud identified Evans as one of the suspects, police reports said. Michaud signed a form saying Evans' photo "looks like the person holding a shotgun to my face." In October, Evans was set free in what was called a case of mistaken identity.
Michaud told police after the home invasion that he "sold drugs years ago, but not now." Police arrested him three days later and charged him with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Officers said they found three pounds of marijuana worth $5,100 and $8,813 in cash while searching his house.
