Rochester assault suspect suffers from PTSD

A county prosecutor looks on as Christopher J. Wentworth of Rochester has his video arraignment in Dover District Court on Wednesday. (Harrison Thorp photo)

DOVER - The deranged Rochester man arraigned in a series of violent assaults in the Hannaford parking lot on Tuesday was anything but in court on Wednesday.

Christopher J. Wentworth appeared contrite and courteous as he leaned forward and listened from his chair at the Strafford County Jail during a videotaped courtroom appearance before a Rochester District Court Judge.

Inside the courtroom his mother watched silently as her son’s bail was set at $10,000 cash. The bail can be amended to personal recognizance if he is accepted by the Strafford County Community Corrections program pending a mental health evaluation.

The judge then went through other bail provisions such as no entry to the Hannaford’s and no contact with any of the four victims in Tuesday’s melee, brought on, his mother said, due to her son’s constant battle Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome he developed after a tour in Iraq as a member of the National Guard.

Wentworth, 43, has been living at his Chestnut Hill Road home on a disability from the Army after they diagnosed him with PTSD more than a year ago, according to his mother, who asked not to be identified. Wentworth quietly told the judge he had filled out the financial paperwork for a free or reduced-cost lawyer in advance of a probable cause hearing later this month.  

Christopher J. Wentworth

Wentworth has no prior criminal history.

The charges against him are substantial: He faces four felony counts of second-degree assault for allegedly striking victims with a club-like weapon, three counts of felony criminal threatening and one count of simple assault for throwing a bag of popcorn at a man.

Of the four men allegedly assaulted, only one was taken to the hospital with what police described as nonlife-threatening injuries.

Tuesday morning’s incident began around 9:30 in the Milton Road Hannaford parking lot, spread across the street to Midas and ended in the VIP Auto Parts parking lot.

According to police, the suspect first approached a male victim who was seated in his vehicle and began a verbal confrontation. Police say Wentworth then took out a black “crow bar” type object that was approximately two-feet long and struck the victim in the chest. As the victim was trying to get back into his vehicle the suspect struck the victim in the leg multiple times with the object causing bruising, police said.

The suspect then approached another male who was unloading a delivery truck at the front of the Hannaford’s and waved the blunt object at this victim in a threatening manner.

Police said the suspect then hit this delivery truck victim in the head with a large bag of popcorn, which Wentworth retrieved from the supermarket.

According to police, the suspect then turned and walked toward two older males who were putting groceries in the trunk of their vehicle and began swinging the wooden club at one of the males. One of the men apparently retrieved a handgun from the vehicle, police said.

Soon after, Wentworth ran across Route 125 toward the railroad tracks between Midas and an oil-change shop just north of Midas.

He was chased toward VIP where he tried to get inside but was dragged back outside by a Midas worker whose wife works at VIP. 

Moments later the police arrived and Wentworth was taken into custody without incident.

Spaulding High School was put in lockdown mode during the incident as a precaution.