Police: Man took own life during traffic stop

By JORDAN J. PHELAN
[email protected]
BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — A Bellows Falls man pulled over for a motor vehicle violation took his own life behind the wheel Tuesday night, according to police and the chief medical examiner’s office in Burlington.

In an updated press release issued by the Vermont State Police Wednesday afternoon, Bellows Falls Police Officer Zachary Tarvit had observed a 2011 Mazda CX-7 SUV operating in an erratic manner and promptly initiated a motor vehicle stop on Rockingham Street (U.S. Route 5) near Summer Street at aproximately 7:45 p.m. But before Tarvit emerged from his cruiser to approach the vehicle, an apparent gunshot could be heard from inside the SUV.

Tarvit and other responding officers, including from the Windham County Sheriff’s Department and the Walpole, N.H. Police Department, approached the vehicle and found a man, identified as 25-year-old Ethan Matthews, deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The chief medical examiner’s office in Burlington determined the cause of death for a Bellows Falls man during a traffic stop was suicide following an autopsy.

Matthews was the only individual inside the vehicle at the time of the incident. No one else was injured.

The investigation into this incident is ongoing. Vermont State Police continue to ask anyone who might have relevant information to call the Westminster Barracks at (802) 722-4600.