Family of 3 killed in series of shootings that ended on Maine bridge identified

KITTERY, Maine (AP) — Authorities released autopsy results Friday for three bodies recovered from a home, a car's back seat and a river between New Hampshire and Maine, identifying a man accused of fatally shooting his wife and their 8-year-old son before being shot to death by police.

Police identified the family of three as Brittany and Trent Weston, both 37, and their son, Benson. Officials said the mother and son died from multiple gunshot wounds inflicted by Trent Weston, who was shot multiple times by troopers during a standoff on a bridge and fell 100 feet (30 meters) into the water below.

The Westons had recently moved into a duplex in Troy, New Hampshire, where Brittany Weston's body was discovered early Thursday after her husband called 911 to report that they'd argued and that she was dead. The boy's body was found in Trent Weston's car parked about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away on the Interstate 95 bridge between Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Kittery, Maine.

After failed attempts to negotiate, two New Hampshire troopers and a Maine trooper fired their weapons after Trent Weston got out of the car and raised a weapon, officials said. The Coast Guard recovered his body from the Piscataqua River.

Police said Friday they hadn't determined a motive for the violence. Investigations were continuing in Maine and New Hampshire.

The bridge was closed for about seven hours before reopening. Between 70,000 and 80,000 vehicles use the Piscataqua bridge each day, according to the Maine Department of Transportation.

Col. William Ross, chief of Maine State Police, speaks during a news conference after a man connected to a homicide was fatally shot by police on a bridge that connects New Hampshire to Maine, and found an 8-year-old child shot to death in the man's car, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024 in Kittery, Maine. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

Police block a ramp to Interstate 95 and the Piscataqua River Bridge in Portsmouth, N.H. after a man connected to a homicide was fatally shot by police and an 8-year-old child was found shot to death in the man’s car on the bridge that connects New Hampshire to Maine, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

The Piscataqua River Bridge is shown in Portsmouth, N.H. after a man connected to a homicide was fatally shot by police and an 8-year-old child was found shot to death in the man’s car on the bridge that connects New Hampshire to Maine, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. An 8-year-old child was found shot to death in the man's car, the attorney general's office said Thursday. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The leader of Poland’s right-wing opposition party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, on Saturday accused the pro-European Union government of acting against the nation’s interests and violating its laws, at a rally of a few thousand supporters in the capital.

Kaczynski also called on the supporters to be active at social and political levels and to back his Law and Justice party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election. He is still to name the candidate.

Up to four thousand people with national white-and-red flags gathered for the rally held in windy weather outside the Justice Ministry in Warsaw, which has become a symbol of years of deep rifts between the backers of Kaczynski and Donald Tusk, now the prime minister.

Law and Justice that ruled in 2015-23 drew criticism from Brussels and Tusk alike for making changes to Poland’s judicial system that were deemed undemocratic. Many in the nation of 38 million were also tired of the aggressive and divisive language that Kaczynski, who dictated the government's policies from the back seat, used to energize support.

The party lost power in the 2023 election but is still exerting control over the presidential office through President Andrzej Duda, who is allied with Law and Justice.

Duda has been blocking many of the government's draft laws in what is a rather rough cohabitation. Duda's second and last term runs out in August.

FILE - Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk attends solemn ceremonies at Westerplatte, on the Baltic Sea, Poland, on Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Wojciech Strozyk)