Man charged with murder after shooting at country club leaves 1 dead, at least 6 injured
By CNN, September 23, 2025Wedding guests were gathering on the dance floor at a New Hampshire country club Saturday evening when the DJ warned the room to expect some loud noises from a dish-breaking tradition popular at Greek weddings.
But the anticipated sounds of celebration and shattering plates were interrupted by popping noises in the next room, witnesses said.
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“It sounded like balloons, because, you know, we’re at a festivity … but then you look around and we didn’t have balloons,” wedding guest Tom Bartelson told CNN affiliate WHDH.
The guests quickly realised the noise was gunshots being fired by a man in the club’s restaurant and began to scatter for safety. Some went out the door or into the kitchen, others took cover under tables, witnesses said.
Fifty-nine-year-old Robert Steven DeCesare was killed, and two other adults – one restaurant patron and one employee – were injured in the shooting at the Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua, state Attorney General John M. Formella said at a news conference Sunday.
Four other restaurant patrons who were not hit by gunfire were injured in the chaos following the shooting, Formella said.
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Shot employee airlifted
The employee who was shot was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital and is in critical but stable condition, Nashua Police Chief Kevin Rourke said. The condition of the other victim, who was shot, is unknown, authorities said Sunday.
Hunter Nadeau, 23, a former employee of the club, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in DeCesare’s death, authorities said Sunday. There is no known connection between the two men, according to a statement from Formella.
Nadeau, who had not worked at the club for about a year, reportedly made multiple statements during the shooting that authorities believe were designed to create confusion, Formella said. Investigators are still working to understand his motive.
The shooting marks another instance of gun violence erupting at a place in the US not usually prone to danger. “It’s the lottery you don’t want to win in America,” wedding DJ Michael Homewood told WHDH.
DeCesare’s mother, Evie O’Rourke, told CNN her son was having dinner with his wife and daughter at the restaurant inside the country club when the shooting happened.
“They cannot wrap their heads around it,” O’Rourke said. “They saw the whole thing, they saw him fall, and had to escape.”