By Danya Gainor, Karina Tsui and Chris Boyette

(CNN) — Wedding guests were gathering on the dance floor at a New Hampshire country club Saturday evening when the DJ warned the room to expect some loud noises from a dish-breaking tradition popular at Greek weddings.

But the anticipated sounds of celebration and shattering plates were interrupted by popping noises in the next room, witnesses said.

“It sounded like balloons, because, you know, we’re at a festivity … but then you look around and we didn’t have balloons,” wedding guest Tom Bartelson told CNN affiliate WHDH.

The guests quickly realized the noise was gunshots being fired by a man in the club’s restaurant and began to scatter for safety. Some went out the door or into the kitchen, others took cover under tables, witnesses said.

Fifty-nine-year-old Robert Steven DeCesare was killed and two other adults – one restaurant patron and one employee – were injured in the shooting at the Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua, state Attorney General John M. Formella said at a news conference Sunday.

The employee who was shot was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital and is in critical but stable condition, Nashua Police Chief Kevin Rourke said.

DeCesare’s mother, Evie O’Rourke, told CNN her son was having dinner with his wife and daughter at the restaurant inside the country club when the shooting happened.

“They cannot wrap their heads around it,” O’Rourke said. “They saw the whole thing, they saw him fall, and had to escape.”

O’Rourke says her daughter-in-law, Charlene, told her that DeCesare lunged at the gunman in an attempt to stop him when he was killed.

DeCesare’s daughter is set to be married in a few weeks and will no longer have her father to walk her down the aisle.

O’Rourke hopes her son is remembered as “one of those great guys that everybody loves,” and says she is proud of him for saving the lives of his wife and daughter in his final moments.

Hunter Nadeau, 23, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in DeCesare’s death, according to a statement from Formella, which said there was no known connection between the two men.

“Additional charges likely will be brought, including for the additional shooting victims,” the statement said.

Nadeau was previously employed at the restaurant but had not worked there for about a year, Formella said.

Four other restaurant patrons were injured by non-gunshot wounds in the chaos following the shooting, Formella said at a news conference.

Nadeau will be arraigned Monday at the Ninth Circuit Court in Nashua at 1 p.m. E.T., according to the attorney general’s office.

Authorities initially believed there were two suspects, but revised their statement after reviewing surveillance footage showing a lone shooter, they said Saturday.

Nadeau used a handgun in the assault, which lasted less than a minute, authorities said Sunday.

After the shooting, he was found in a nearby neighborhood and made no attempt to flee, Rourke said. The police chief would not say whether Nadeau was still armed.

The shooting marks another instance of gun violence erupting at a place in the US not usually prone to danger. “It’s the lottery you don’t want to win in America,” wedding DJ Michael Homewood told WHDH.

Amid the chaos of the shooting, a man walked through the banquet hall, stalking across the dance floor in a daze with a bloody wound, Homewood said.

“I knew it was the guy because he wasn’t dressed up for a wedding, he wasn’t dressed up to go to dinner,” Homewood told WHDH. “For lack of a better explanation, he just looked like a weirdo.”

Sophie Flabouris, a guest at the wedding, said a man had hit the shooter over the head with a chair, forcing him to drop his gun. The shooter then fled, she told WHDH. “He went through the reception area into the kitchen; he had blood on him,” she said.

Flabouris hid under a table when she heard the gunshots, telling WHDH that it was a “fight or flight” moment.

“To experience for the first time … you read about it on the news, you hear about it … we practice this in school,” she said. “But when it actually happens, it’s like fight or flight.”

Bartelson said that in the chaos following his nephew’s wedding, guests scrambled to get to safety, according to The Associated Press.

“We were trying to keep family members safe,” he said. “Keep everybody down and try to find safe spots.”

Bartelson told WHDH he heard the gunman yell “the children are safe” and “free Palestine.”

According to Formella, evidence suggests Nadeau made several different statements during the incident, and there is no evidence at this time that his motivations were hate-based.

“He was making a lot of different statements, and it appears to us that it’s more likely that those statements were intended to create chaos during the event and that they don’t really give us much of a sense of his motive,” Fromella said.

Formella expressed gratitude for the quick response of police and restaurant patrons who acted “selflessly and quickly,” saying that while the incident was tragic, “it was not nearly as tragic as it could have been.”

Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess called the incident a “tragedy,” emphasizing that one loss of life is still too many.

He expressed shock and surprise at such a shooting happening in his town. “No matter how unlikely it seems, it can happen where you are,” Donchess told reporters Saturday night, vowing to “bring appropriate justice” to those responsible.

Nashua is about 45 minutes from Boston on the Massachusetts border.

New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she is praying for the victims and thanked first responders.

“Joe and I are praying for the victims and their families of the tragic shooting last night at Sky Meadow Country Club,” she posted on X. “The Attorney General’s office will continue to assist the Nashua Police Department with this ongoing investigation.”

The New Hampshire State Police is also assisting with the shooting investigation, it said on X.

New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Rep. Maggie Goodlander said they were monitoring the incident.

“Billy and I are praying for those injured,” Shaheen wrote. “There is no place in our state for this type of senseless violence.”

“My heart is with the victims, their families, and the entire Nashua community as we await more information,” Goodlander said.

Sen. Maggie Hassan said her “heart goes out to the families of those impacted,” and she is “grateful for the work of the law enforcement officers and first responders at the scene.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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