A New Hampshire man who shot and killed another man after a terrifying road rage incident was cleared of wrongdoing, with the state attorney general ruling the shooting was in self defense.
“I’ve got a flat tire, this mother (expletive) keeps ramming me, and I’m about to shoot him in his (expletive) face,” Shane Miller told dispatchers shortly before his car was disabled and the two men faced off on Pleasant Street in Littleton, New Hampshire.
The 911 call recording from around 11:15 p.m. on Sept. 16, 2024, then “captured squealing tires … the sounds of a vehicle crash, a car door opening, and then ten gunshots being fired in rapid succession.” It also recorded Miller’s voice saying “I didn’t want to kill you! … I’m sorry, I didn’t (expletive) mean that.”
Eric Rexford, 38, would die of multiple gunshot wounds. Miller, 44, said he acted in self defense, which the attorney general’s office affirmed following an investigation.
“The use of deadly force by Shane Miller was justified,” the investigation report concludes. “In addition, even if the shooting was not justified, there would be insufficient evidence to disprove Mr. Miller’s claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. As such, no charges will be filed against Shane Miller in the shooting death of Eric Rexford.”
The tension between the two men began at a mutual friend’s house at Coreys Mobile Home Park in Littleton, when Rexford accused Miller of sleeping with his girlfriend, according to the report. As the discussion escalated, Miller decided to leave and “drive to a local convenience store for cigarettes and beer.”
But Rexford wasn’t done with him. When Miller called Rexford to explain that there was no cheating going on in an effort to prevent further “drama,” Rexford told him he was waiting for him in his driveway. As Miller, behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Equinox, cautiously approached his house, Rexford pulled up behind him in his Subaru Impreza and began a chase that got as fast as 60 mph.
Police would find Miller lying next to his Equinox, which had at least one popped tire and extensive body damage. Another 911 caller reported that a bumper was lying in the road in front of his house.
Miller told police that Rexford had chased him “all over town” before the conclusion in front of the laundromat. Rexford, he said, had just kept ramming his vehicle, causing him to spin out every time and that Miller kept varying his speed so that there wouldn’t be a high-speed collision. With the final ramming, Rexford had Miller’s disabled car pinned firmly up against a sidewalk and there was no more room for Miller to maneuver.
The report includes extensive summaries of interviews with multiple eye witnesses, which back up Miller’s claims that Rexford was chasing him and ramming his vehicle. That includes a male passenger in Rexford’s vehicle during the entire ordeal, who said “he felt unable to do anything once Mr. Rexford saw Mr. Miller’s car, and began chasing Mr. Miller and repeatedly ramming into him.”
He said that Rexford would drive in the op[posing lane or on the grass so he could get at Miller’s vehicle better and that Rexford ignored his repeated requests to be let out of the car.
A medical examiner said that Rexford suffered eight gunshot wounds: to his right cheek, his chest, his abdomen, his right arm, his right thigh, his left knee, and his right index finger. A toxicological report revealed that Rexford had amphetamine, cocaine, methamphetamine, marihuana, alcohol, and processed metabolites of the same drugs in his system. His blood alcohol content was tested at 0.16, double the legal limit.
