[F]our individuals suspected in the shooting death of 23-year-old Benzell Hampton in Burlington’s Old North End have been located and will face charges, Burlington Police announced Thursday.
Police in Enfield, Connecticut, arrested Brandon Sanders, 18, and Johnny Ford, 32, Wednesday evening. Lesine Woodson, 32, was arrested by the Burlington Police Department shortly after Tuesday’s shooting and James Felix, 36, is still in treatment at the University of Vermont Medical Center.
Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said in a press release that he anticipates all the subjects will be charged with second degree murder.
Felix, Sanders and Ford attacked Hampton in the driveway of 235 North Willard St. before 3 p.m. Tuesday as Hampton was completing a drug deal with a resident there, police say. The motive for the attack remains under investigation.
Hampton exchanged gunfire with his assailants as they wrestled him to the ground, according to police. Hampton was shot in the head and killed, and with Felix “in danger of dying,” the three men got into a Nissan Pathfinder, which Woodson was driving.
Woodson drove toward the UVM Medical Center and flagged down an ambulance on Colchester Avenue, near the hospital. Sanders and Ford had left the scene by the time police arrived and later left the state.
Sanders was arrested on Interstate 91 in Connecticut after authorities in Massachusetts spotted the vehicle he was driving.
Ford was arrested by a Connecticut SWAT team at a motel, where Enfield police found 100 grams of crack cocaine and $16,000 in cash. He arrived at the MGM Grand Casino in Springfield, Massachusetts, around 3 a.m. Wednesday, and was later kicked out of the casino after a dispute with casino staff around 2 p.m.
Woodson, who identified herself as Felix’s romantic interest, was questioned and detained at the hospital.
Del Pozo told VTDigger Thursday that Felix is likely to survive and is in stable condition but is still in treatment.
Del Pozo said in his statement that the gunfire sent bullets flying “everywhere” and that the department had to pull bullets out of walls and pillars. He said that it was lucky no one else was injured or killed, and that people rightly asked if the suspects posed a danger to the community after the shooting.
“The answer was yes: not because their murderous acts targeted everyday people going about their lives, but because people who act this way are a danger to our community, dealing drugs and planning acts of violence as a way of handling disputes,” del Pozo said. “It is why our police officers work hard to make state and federal cases against people who victimize our community with drug sales.”
Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a statement that the shooting was “intolerable.”
“Our officers know that, and worked skillfully over thirty hours to bring all of those responsible for this attack to justice,” Weinberger said in the statement. “The message of their work should be clear to all: We will not stand for violence in Burlington, and we will work relentlessly to ensure the safety of all in our community.”
Ford has a lengthy criminal history in Florida, including robbery with a firearm, aggravated battery and drug charges. Sanders has been arrested in Florida for robbery and larceny.
Hampton led Vermont State Police on a high speed chase in January as he attempted to evade arrest on a warrant for a felony weapons change from New York. The chase ended when Hampton was arrested in Essex.
Hampton is also from Florida, and leaves behind two young children.
Woodson, of Orlando, Florida, was charged with second degree murder and being an accessory after the fact, and is being held at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility without bail.
Police spoke to Hampton’s girlfriend, who is only identified by her first name, Chelsey. She told them that Hampton received a phone call from a blocked number between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m, according to the affidavit in Woodson’s case. The caller told Hampton they would shoot him today, which Hampton passed off as a joke.
Hampton then went to the residence of another acquaintance, Jonete Sommers, which is where the shooting took place. His girlfriend stayed in the car and witnessed the shooting.
Del Pozo said Hampton was at the residence for a drug deal.
Hampton’s girlfriend told police that Sanders slammed Hampton into the ground before another male, who she did not recognize, shot Hampton at point-blank range.
Police spoke to Woodson at the hospital.
Woodson told police that she and Felix had arrived in Vermont a month earlier and had been staying at a Motel 6 in Colchester. She told police she and Felix had gotten into an argument earlier in the day and that she was driving the Nissan Pathfinder that had been abandoned on Colchester Avenue looking for Felix.
She said she was driving around areas that Felix would frequent and happened to find him suffering from a gunshot wound. She said two males loaded him into the vehicle and she was driving to the hospital when she encountered the ambulance.
She claimed not to know the names of the two people who loaded Felix into the car.
Police, however, charged her with second degree murder and being an accessory to the murder.
Colchester police said the motel had no record that Woodson and Felix were guests at that time.
One neighbor who witnessed the aftermath of the shooting, Stuart Paton, took a video which showed that two men helping a limping man to the Nissan Pathfinder, and one of the men was holding a gun.
Another witness told police that he saw the three men heading toward to car, and that a woman exited the SUV and looked down the driveway to see what was going on. In the video he took, Paton read the license place of the car at the scene, which was the same car towed from Colchester Avenue.
Ellie French contributed reporting.
