[O]ne week after a police officer shot and killed a man in downtown Winooski, several dozen people gathered to protest police violence.
Vermont State Police say Deputy Nicholas Palmier of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department fired seven bullets at 29-year-old Jesse Beshaw after a brief foot chase led to an area behind a community center on Malletts Bay Avenue.
Police were attempting to arrest Beshaw in connection with a Sept. 2 burglary warrant.
Standing at the southern edge of the roundabout in Winooski, the gaggle of protesters held a smattering of signs: “Justice for Jesse,” “Stop police terror,” and “Were 7 shots needed?”
Cars and trucks honked as they passed. One bus driver held a sign reading “justice” out the window as they passed.
For some, the event was personal.
Rob Zeno of Milton said Beshaw was his sister-in-law’s fiancé. He said Beshaw was a great father.
Zeno came to Friday’s event to convey the message that, “it’s not OK,” he said. “Seven shots are a little excessive.”
He urged the police to release video footage that shows what happened to Beshaw behind O’Brien’s Community Center.
“I think we just need to get some justice, that’s all,” Zeno said. “Better way of doing things. Emptying your weapon’s not the way to do it.”
Another attendee, who said he knew Jesse, held a sign that said “Release the tape!!!”
He said he believes law enforcement should release the recording, “so that everyone can judge for themselves whether they were right or wrong.”
“If it was justified, prove it. There’s no reason why they can’t,” he said. “What are they afraid of? What do they have to hide? Bottom line, justice for Jesse.”
Others came out in solidarity at the end of a week when state headlines were dominated by the Winooski shooting, and national headlines were dominated by fatal police shootings in North Carolina and Oklahoma.
Lizzy Gomez and Joshelyn Ramirez of Burlington said that they came to the rally in part to protest police brutality on a national scale.
“Just because we’re in Vermont doesn’t mean that we’re safe. It does happen here,” Gomez said.
Ramirez raised an issue of accountability among law enforcement officers.
“People of all races are dying,” Ramirez said. “That is unacceptable.”
Police have refused to release the footage from body cameras officers involved with the shooting were wearing at the time. The Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s office said earlier this week that the police investigation is expected to take two weeks, and the prosecutor’s office will likely take a week to complete their review.
Heidi Storm, records and alarm administrator for the Vermont State Police, said in an email this week that footage from three body camera videos taken by police will not be released because they are part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Jay Diaz, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, attended the rally Friday.
The ACLU-VT has called for the police to release the tapes. Diaz said that transparency is critical “so that the public can see what happened and make their own judgments before decisions get made behind closed doors.”
