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LONDONDERRY, N.H. | 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.

The police dog tracked the scent to the parking lot of Evo Cycle, 61 Rockingham Road.

"I then saw what looked to be fresh tire marks" in the parking lot, Perry wrote.

Londonderry police Capt. William Hart refused to comment yesterday on the reports or provide copies of them, noting he believed they were no longer public documents because they were part of the Reid murder investigation.

Assistant Attorney General Charles Keefe could not be reached yesterday for comment.

Brooks, who moved from New Hampshire to Las Vegas within the past year, is scheduled to appear before a Nevada judge on Monday on a fugitive-from-justice charge. It's unclear whether he'll fight being extradited to New Hampshire.

Before his arrest, Brooks was widely known as the founder of a successful medical-supply company, PolyVac Inc. in Manchester. He sold the company years ago, and owns residential and commercial property throughout New Hampshire.

Prosecutors say prior to the murder, Brooks flew from Las Vegas to Manchester with Joseph Vrooman and Robin Knight. The trio met Michael Benton, 30, of Manchester in Deerfield before Reid was killed. Vrooman is being held in a Tennessee jail. Knight and Benton are being held in local jails on $500,000 cash bail.

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