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LIQUOR STORE FATALITY Ex-wife: Jones battled mental health issues Says he went off medication 3 days before he was killed

Portsmouth Herald - 6/16/2017

PORTSMOUTH - Two New Hampshire State Police troopers walked into the questioning room inside the Portsmouth police station to speak with Tiffany Jones. She knew right away they would tell her that her ex-husband and boyfriend, Barry Jones, was dead.

"When they ever walked in that room with their hats off, I knew what they were going to tell me," Tiffany, 40, said Thursday while battling tears. She had been in a relationship with Barry for 12 years.

Barry Jones, 36, was shot three times by state troopers at the liquor store on Interstate 95 southbound on June 13 and pronounced dead at Portsmouth Regional Hospital later that day. His gunshot wounds, two in his torso and one in his left shoulder, were confirmed to be his cause of death by the chief medical examiner's office in Concord Wednesday.

Police had put a "be-on-the-lookout" alert for Jones after he was believed to have waved a gun at a man in Portsmouth and taken a silver 2002 Ford Ranger pickup truck. A state trooper spotted him at the liquor store at about 12:24 p.m., and the shooting occurred shortly after 12:30 p.m., authorities said. No officers or any of the 28 customers, employees and vendors were injured.

The state attorney general's office is investigating the incident. Authorities have not described what led police to shoot Jones, and Senior Assist Attorney General Benjamin Agati said those details will not be released until everyone who was at the scene has been formally interviewed.

Tiffany said her ex-husband was a "great man" and loving boyfriend despite struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues. She said those issues included bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression. He had a lengthy criminal history in the Seacoast from criminal trespass to theft, but Jones and those who knew him hoped he could turn his life around. They said he was trying to stay sober and consistently take his medication.

The couple was staying with Tiffany's father, Kenneth "Skip" Tilley, at the Portsmouth Apartments on Rockland Street for a week, having recently moved back to New Hampshire from Florida.

Tiffany said Jones went off his medication three days before he was killed, and her father said he noticed he began drinking alcohol again over the weekend.

Tuesday morning, another man living in the Portsmouth Apartments, Donald Harris, 57, said he got a text at about 4 a.m. from Barry Jones. The text asked if he had any alcohol, and Harris replied he did not.

Several hours later in the morning, Jones knocked on Harris's door. When Harris opened the door, he said Jones pulled a handgun out of his waistband, pointed it at Harris and told him the two were going to Lawrence, Massachusetts, to get drugs.

Harris, who had met Jones only a week earlier, said he was scared "to death." He and Jones had talked while smoking outside a couple times, and Harris said he seemed normal in those instances. Standing in his doorway with a gun in his hand, Jones appeared "off," possibly intoxicated or on drugs, Harris said. His speech was slurred and he was "fidgety," he said.

"I said, no, I don't do that and I'm not about to," Harris recalled. Jones left the doorway and went to see 71-year-old Jim Cox, another neighbor he had come to know during his time at the apartment complex.

Cox was aware Jones had not had "the easiest life," but like Tiffany and Tilley, he was under the impression he was trying to turn his life around. He had observed Jones helping Tilley in what appeared to be genuine kindness. When Jones knocked on his door at about 11 a.m. to ask if he could borrow Cox's Ford Ranger, Cox was reluctant but agreed as long as he was back by noon. Jones told him he would repay him with a good deed.

"Some of his last words to me, was, 'I'm going to help you do something,'" Cox said. "Then he left, and that was the last I saw of him."

Barry Jones went back to Harris's apartment. When Harris opened the door, Jones held up the truck keys, according to Harris, and said it was "our ride to Lawrence." Harris again said no, but Jones walked into his apartment and sat on his couch. Harris told him to leave, and Jones, visibly "agitated" according to Harris, did so.

Harris went to call 911 and report Jones's behavior and that he had left, but he said two Portsmouth police cruisers were already pulling into the apartment parking lot at that moment to investigate.

Tiffany said she last saw Barry when he left to get the keys to the truck from Cox. Shortly after, she said, her father came up to their apartment to tell her he had left. She went downstairs to find him gone and the police on the scene.

At 12:30 p.m., she received a text message from Jones saying he loved her and that he was "checking out."

"He has said this to me before plenty of times, so I didn't text him back," Tiffany said. "I never thought this would have happened. I thought they would have arrested him and he would go to jail."

Around 3 p.m., Portsmouth police asked Tiffany to go to the Portsmouth police station for questioning. At that time, she asked, "You still haven't gotten him yet?" to which they replied, "No." She said she wonders if they said that because they truly did not know or if they were waiting for the state police troopers to tell her in person two hours later.

Cox said his truck is currently at the state police barracks in Epping. He feels like a victim of the crime as well, having been left under the impression that Barry Jones would stick to his word and bring the truck back in an hour.

"I was taken advantage of for my good nature," Cox said. "Everything would have been fine if he dropped the truck back off by noon time like he said, but I guess there was, unbeknownst to me, the other chain of events."

Harris and Tiffany both said they later learned the gun may have been a pellet gun. Agati, the senior assistant attorney general, said Thursday he could not comment on that.

Tiffany said she is not upset at police, but that she is confused as to why Jones needed to be shot three times. One shot could have done the job, she said.

"Three times?" she said. "Why would they have to shoot at him three times? Even if he was armed, I'm sure he went down . It's not sitting well with me at all."