BY MICHELLE KIM

A Goffstown man who escaped into the woods for several hours after a domestic argument involving gunfire was caught without incident at a Manchester residence on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

Joseph Nolin, 36, and a female resident of Church Street got into an argument Tuesday shortly before 4:20 p.m. During the altercation, a gun was fired inside the house but no one was injured.

The woman ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911 while Nolin ran out the back door into the woods.

There were no children in the house at the time but there were several other adults, according to Goffstown Police Chief Michael French.

Justin Cloutier, 20, a mechanic and attendant at the Mobil gas station on the corner of Church Street and North Mast Road, said he saw four women with their hands up being cleared from the area around 4:45 p.m. He also described some officers as arriving in riot gear and bearing rifles.

Police were not sure if Nolin was armed. French described Nolin as a 6-foot-3-inch, 190-pound white male with brown eyes, brown hair and a bushy beard that he may or may not have shaved off.

Goffstown police, with the help of the Manchester Police Department, New Hampshire State Police, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Weare Police Department and New Boston Police Department, searched the surrounding area near the intersection of Church Street and North Mast Road for several hours with no result. A police helicopter began circling the area with a searchlight shortly before 6 p.m.

Manchester police found Nolin at a Manchester residence sometime before 7:20 p.m. and apprehended him without incident.

Nolin was to be arraigned in Goffstown District Court on Wednesday, Nov. 7, and charged with attempted first-degree assault, criminal threatening and reckless conduct.