AG's office concludes elderly West Side man acted in self-defense when he killed his adult son

Josie Albertson-Grove, The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
·3 min read

Apr. 8—A Manchester man will not face charges for killing his adult son, after the Attorney General's Office concluded he shot in self-defense as his son punched, kicked and beat him with a cane.

Alan Beliveau, 59, was living with his father, George Beliveau, 82, in a house on Brockton Street, in a quiet neighborhood on Manchester's West Side. Alan struggled with addiction and mental health, George later told police, and one of George's other children said her father was afraid of Alan. She would see George with bruises, but he refused to say how he got them.

In 2018, Alan barricaded himself in the basement with a recently-purchased gun, and had beat up George. A Manchester police SWAT team eventually used tear gas to get Alan out of the basement.

April 16, 2020, had been a normal day for father and son. They went grocery shopping together, and came home to relax. Alan went up to his bedroom to play chess online, while George sat downstairs, George later told police.

It had been a nice day, George later said.

That evening, Alan came downstairs and out of the blue, said George was not really his father. He was angry, and George said he might have been drinking.

Then, George told police, Alan started punching his father and hit him with a cane. He knocked him to the ground, and then kicked him, over and over. Alan was 23 years younger and 100 pounds heavier than George. George said he thought he was fighting for his life, he later told police, but could not get his son to let up.

George told detectives that Alan told him "I'm going to finish you off."

George reached for the gun he always kept in his left pocket, and shot twice.

When Alan fell, George ran out the kitchen door to a neighbor's house.

"My son attacked me," George said when he got to the neighbor's house. His face and arms were bloody, the neighbors told police. "My son attacked me, my son attacked me, call the police, my son tried to kill me," George said.

The neighbor asked if George "put bullets in Alan," and George said he did. He gave a small silver pistol to the neighbor.

"I had to do something because I didn't think I'd see daylight again. I had to shoot him," George said to paramedics as they rode to the hospital.

At the hospital, George recounted the night to police. Police said it seemed like George did not know he had killed Alan. He asked if Alan would be arrested, and said he did not feel safe going home if Alan was there.

When officers told George he had killed his son, he started sobbing. Alan was his only son, George said over and over, he was just trying to stop the beating.

Police found Alan's body face-down on the floor at the Beliveau home, glasses still on his face. He had been shot in the chest and in the stomach. An autopsy later determined Alan had been shot from about a distance of about a foot-and-a-half. The autopsy also determined Alan's blood-alcohol level was 0.136.

Almost a year after the Beliveau's death, the Attorney General's Office released prosecutors' review of the shooting Thursday.

Because Alan was so much larger and much younger than his father, the review read, he had a distinct physical advantage as he beat his father. Prosecutors said it was reasonable for George Beliveau to believe his son meant to kill him, and concluded he was justified in responding with deadly force.

George Beliveau will not face any criminal charges for killing his son.

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