Williston Officer Shoots, Wounds Man During Predawn Roadway Call

A Williston police officer shot and wounded a man before dawn on Thursday while responding to a report of downed wires across a state highway, setting off a state investigation into one of Vermont's latest officer-involved shootings and leaving a stretch of road closed for much of the day.

The shooting happened at about 4:50 a.m. on Vermont Route 2A, also known as St. George Road, between Butternut Road and Old Creamery Road, according to an initial statement from the Vermont State Police. Williston officers had been called to the road for wires down and were working in the roadway when a driver approached the scene. What happened between the car and the officer in the moments before the gunfire remains under investigation.

The man who was shot suffered a gunshot wound to the hip. He was taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, treated and released. The officer who fired, using his department-issued handgun, was evaluated at the same hospital for a minor injury and also released, a same-day update from investigators said. Neither man has been publicly identified. State police said the man's name is being withheld until relatives are notified, and the officer's name will be withheld for at least 24 hours, which the agency described as standard protocol in police shootings.

What happened on Route 2A

Accounts from the scene remain partial. A witness, Riley Billings, told WCAX that he saw a car slowly approach a Williston cruiser stopped on Route 2A, appear to try to pass it, and then attempt to re-enter the northbound lane before an officer tried to stop the driver. Gunshots followed when the driver did not stop, Billings said. A neighbor, Matthew Ketchum, told the station he heard two bangs and initially assumed they came from a transformer. Neither account has been confirmed by investigators, who have released few details of what preceded the shooting.

Route 2A was closed in both directions for several hours while crime scene technicians processed the area; state police said they expected the road to reopen by mid-afternoon, and it did. The closure disrupted a commuter corridor connecting Williston to Richmond and the Winooski Valley on a weekday morning.

The investigation underway

The Williston officer who fired has been placed on paid administrative leave, which both the department and Vermont Public described as standard practice while a shooting is investigated. A second Williston officer has also been placed on leave, though police have not said what role, if any, that officer played in the encounter.

Vermont State Police detectives, including members of the agency's major crime unit and a crime scene search team, are interviewing witnesses and reviewing video from Williston police cruiser and body-worn cameras. Maj. Ashley Barnes, commander of the State Police Criminal Division, briefed reporters at the Williston Barracks Thursday afternoon. Williston Police Chief Brian LaBarge also addressed the shooting at a separate briefing, cautioning that the department's own account was still taking shape.

"It's a preliminary investigation. There's more to follow. More information may or may not be released."

That caution reflects a dynamic familiar in Vermont, where the agency that employs an officer involved in a shooting does not investigate its own case. Under longstanding practice, Williston police handed the inquiry to state troopers roughly an hour into the incident, a separation intended to avoid any appearance of a department investigating itself.

How Vermont reviews police shootings

Once state police finish gathering evidence, the file goes to the Vermont Attorney General's Office and the Chittenden County state's attorney for an independent review of whether the use of deadly force was legally justified. That two-track review — a criminal-division investigation followed by separate prosecutorial sign-off — has handled a string of police shootings across the state in recent years, including a non-fatal shooting involving a Ludlow police chief that Attorney General Charity Clark's office concluded was legally justified earlier this year.

The framework is also in flux. Vermont lawmakers this year enacted a new law directing the Attorney General's Office, state's attorneys, the Department of Public Safety and the Vermont Association of Chiefs of Police to jointly develop a statewide protocol for independent investigations of officer-involved shootings, including clearer rules on conflicts of interest and how prosecutors weigh investigative files. State police said Thursday's case would proceed under existing practice while that broader protocol is finalized.

Williston is a growing commuter suburb of roughly 10,000 people east of Burlington, and Route 2A is one of its busiest arteries, carrying traffic past the town's retail corridor toward the interstate. A predawn shooting on a stretch of road normally associated with utility trucks and commuter traffic unsettled neighbors who described hearing gunfire rather than the storm-related noise many assumed at first.

What happens next

State police said the investigation remains in its earliest stages, and officials have not offered a timeline for when the names of the man who was shot or the officer who fired will be released, or when the file will reach prosecutors. Past Vermont officer-involved shooting reviews have taken anywhere from several weeks to many months before the Attorney General's Office issues a public finding.

For now, both men involved have been released from the hospital, the road has reopened, and the Williston Police Department says the officer who fired remains on leave pending the outcome of the state inquiry. Anyone with information about the incident has been asked to contact Vermont State Police at the Williston Barracks or submit a tip anonymously through the agency's website.