In the late morning of August 5, 2022, a sense of normalcy was shattered outside a Sunoco gas station on Amherst Street in Nashua, New Hampshire. Lee Knoetig, a 53-year-old White / Caucasian male, was shot in the chest. Emergency services responded to calls of a person shot shortly before 11:30 a.m. and found Knoetig unresponsive on the ground outside the business. Despite their efforts, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy later confirmed that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
The investigation into the untimely death of Lee Knoetig, who was remembered by his brother as a kind man who wouldn't hurt anyone and who left behind children and grandchildren, quickly led to a suspect. The day following the incident, the New Hampshire Attorney General's office announced the arrest of 19-year-old Alexander Wheeler of Nashua. Wheeler lived on Amherst Street, not far from the scene of the shooting. He was initially charged with second-degree murder for recklessly causing Knoetig's death under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life.
Alexander Wheeler's legal journey concluded in August 2023. In a negotiated plea agreement, Wheeler, then 20, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, as well as a charge of falsifying physical evidence for discarding the pistol he used in the shooting. He was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison for the manslaughter charge, with a consecutive sentence of 3 to 6 years for falsifying evidence. The court offered the possibility of reducing his sentence if he maintains a clean prison record and obtains an Associate's Degree. Following the plea, Wheeler was held without bail.
