Oops!... I did it again: The other time Kyle Tasker dropped his gun at the State House
Kyle Tasker, the former state representative who resigned this year after his arrest on drug and child solicitation charges, made national headlines in 2012 for accidentally dropping a handgun in the middle of a House committee hearing. Apparently, that wasn’t the only time he dropped his gun at the State House.
Rep. Gary Hopper shared the story during an episode of “Rock, Paper, Hand Grenades,” an online interview show he hosts with Matt Connarton.
Hopper and Rep. John Burt (R-Goffstown) were discussing a gun that would accidentally discharge if it was dropped. “I guess people frowned on that,” Burt said. “Like up at the State House it happens occasionally, you know, because we’re all armed.”
“One representative dropped a gun twice,” Hopper replied. The Weare Republican said Tasker dropped his handgun a second time as he was walking down the stairs to a tunnel that connects the Legislative Office Building and the State House.
“It fell down in front of him and landed in front of… it might have been Stepanek [Rep. Stephen Stepanek], I’m not sure, and he goes, ‘Oh, I guess the safety was on’ and laughed and went and picked it up.”
“He sounds dangerous,” joked Connarton. “He ought to be locked up somewhere.”
Tasker indicted on 11 charges
This week, a Rockingham County grand jury indicted Tasker on 11 felonies. The Concord Monitor reported Tasker was charged with four counts related to his alleged attempts to lure a 14-year-old girl into a sexual encounter, six counts of drug possession with intent to distribute and one count of drug possession.
In May, the state Attorney General’s Office joined the investigation following news reports that police had discovered a list of what may have been Tasker’s customers, and that the list may have included the names of several elected officials.
Associate Attorney General Jane Young told the Union Leader that there have been no additional arrests but the public integrity investigation is still underway.