MANCHESTER - The state Attorney General's Office says the man found behind the wheel of his car with a gunshot wound to his head has died.

Daniel Langlois, 25, died Thursday night at Elliot Hospital, according to a release on the attorney general's web site.

Langlois was found behind the wheel of a sport-utility vehicle around 3 a.m. Thursday near the intersection of Jane and Nashua streets.

An autopsy performed Friday confirmed the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head. The death is being treated as a homicide.

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Family says man was shot as he left city bar

MANCHESTER - Police are investigating the shooting of a 25-year-old man discovered critically wounded in the driver's seat of a sport-utility vehicle Thursday.

Linda Schmidt said her grandson, Daniel Langlois, was the man police found shot in the head.

"His family is devastated by this," said Schmidt, who lives in Washington state. "My heart has broken into a million pieces."

Schmidt described her grandson as a hard worker who was heading home from work as a bouncer at a Manchester nightclub when he was shot.

"I don't want people getting the idea that this was some punk kid who had shot his mouth off and got popped for it," she said. "Somebody shot him in the back of the head? He didn't deserve that."

She said Langlois, who lives in Manchester, has a 3-year-old daughter and another child on the way.

"Daniel was my firstborn grandson," she said. "He was an avid bike rider. He was a father first, a son, a grandson, a cousin, a nephew, an uncle and a friend to all people.

"He was a golden child," she said. "He was just a super, fantastic kid."

Police said they responded to a hit-and-run call around 3 a.m. Thursday. Officers found the wounded driver inside a Toyota SUV that had collided with a smaller vehicle near the intersection of Jane and Nashua streets, Capt. Nick Willard said.

"We're trying to piece together the events that led up to that," Willard said.

Police do not believe the shooting was random and are investigating whether it was connected to something that happened earlier, Willard said.

Residents in the area told officers they believed they had heard gunshots; the back window of the SUV was shattered.

Police would not release the name of the shooting victim, but said he was in critical condition at Elliot Hospital. Willard referred all other questions to Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin.

Strelzin said at 9:40 p.m. Thursday that the man was still in the intensive care unit in critical condition.

Strelzin said investigators are still checking out leads and speaking to witnesses.

"We know the general area where the shooting took place, but the exact spot is still under investigation," Strelzin said.

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Doug Alden may be reached at dalden@unionleader.com. Tim Buckland may be reached at tbuckland@unionleader.com.