2 Dundalk residents wanted for assault in New Hampshire

A late-night fight at a New Hampshire diner has led to an assault charge against a former New Hampshire police officer and arrest warrants for two others who live in Dundalk.

Aaron Goodwin, 45, of Eliot, Maine, turned himself in on Friday, the New Hampshire State Police said in a news release.

The charges stem from a confrontation at a diner in Portsmouth on the night of Nov. 22, 2023, state police said. When Portsmouth Police officers arrived, they encountered several people, including Goodwin. They contacted state police after Goodwin was identified as a former Portsmouth Police officer, the release said. It did not provide any details about what exactly happened.

Goodwin told Seacoastonline that the victim pursued his sister-in-law “and I perceived him as a threat after he put his tray of food on the ground and got in her face.”

“I pulled him away from her,” he said. ”There was nothing more. The entire incident is on surveillance.”

Arrest warrants also have been issued for Kevin Goodwin, 42, and Shannon Goodwin, 37 of Dundalk, Maryland. Kevin Goodwin faces a simple assault charge and Shannon Goodwin faces three counts of simple assault, state police said. No telephone listings could be located for them to seek comment. Police did not say how Aaron, Kevin and Shannon Goodwin are related.

Aaron Goodwin was fired from the Portsmouth Police Department in 2015 after a judge-led panel investigating a $2.7 million inheritance dispute determined that he breached the police department’s code of ethics and duty manual.

The panel concluded that Goodwin should have refused an elderly woman’s offer to leave him her estate and should have notified supervisors of the offer. A judge stripped Goodwin of the inheritance, saying the officer was “self-serving” when he befriended the woman, who was in her 90s and had dementia.