A fatal shooting in a Bartlett, New Hampshire, parking lot pitting a man with a 9mm pistol versus a victim with a 10mm has been ruled a case of self-defense by the state attorney general.
According to Attorney General John M. Formella’s report on the matter, on July 5, 2023, 23-year-old Jason Sanchez shot and killed Samuel Lozada, 24, during an altercation in a condominium parking lot during a party in Bartlett. At the time of the incident, both men were armed and both shot the other. After the episode, Sanchez claimed he shot Lozada in self-defense.
The report, which was a long time coming for Sanchez, some 16 months after the incident, concluded that based on the facts and evidence in the case, the state could not disprove Sanchez’s claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt.
According to the report, during a police interview, while Sanchez was in the hospital being treated for gunshot wounds, he told investigators that as he was getting into his car Lozada flashed a gun and took his green camouflage backpack and hat from him. After Lozada asked him, “What you got in the car? What you got in your pockets,” Sanchez said the other man put a pistol to his forehead and threatened to kill him.
When another man grabbed Sanchez and tried to pull him from the car, Sanchez grabbed his 10mm Glock pistol, racked the slide, pushed Lozada’s gun away from his face and fired, just as Lozada shot him. Sanchez told officers he believed he hit Lozada three times.
Forensic investigation revealed that the bullet that Lozada fired through Sanchez’s body and vehicle compartment and the 9mm cartridge case located on Sanchez’s driver’s seat had both been discharged from Lozada’s pistol. The 10mm cartridge case recovered from the parking lot in front of the shed, the 10mm cartridge case recovered from the front passenger seat, the bullet recovered from Lozada’s autopsy and the bullet recovered from the parking lot were found to have all been discharged from Sanchez’s 10mm Glock.
An autopsy report revealed that Lozada suffered gunshot wounds to the neck, right forearm and left thigh. The bullet that entered his neck injured the left internal jugular vein, resulting in fatal blood loss.
New Hampshire’s law regarding self-defense permits the use of deadly force against another when he reasonably believes that the other person “is about to use unlawful, deadly force against the actor or a third person.” The law also provides that people in their dwellings, or who are anywhere they have a right to be, have no duty to retreat from the encounter before resorting to deadly force to protect themselves or others if they were not the initial aggressor.
Upon completion of the investigation, the AG‘s office determined that all the facts pointed toward an act of armed self-defense by Sanchez.
“Based on all the facts and circumstances of this case, the Attorney General has concluded that the State cannot disprove Mr. Sanchez’s claims that he used deadly force in self-defense under RSA 627:4, (II)(a), beyond a reasonable doubt,” the report stated. “Here, the evidence suggests that Mr. Sanchez was in actual danger from unlawful, deadly force, when Mr. Lozada displayed his 9mm pistol to Mr. Sanchez in the Nordic Wilderness Road condominium parking lot, threatened to shoot him, and forcibly took his property from him as he put his hands up and tried to leave.”
While the debate over the effectiveness of the 9mm cartridge versus 10mm still isn’t settled, in this incident, at least, the guy with the 10mm came out on top in the gun battle.
