This article was updated at 9:20 p.m. on Oct. 9.
RUTLAND — Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday that drugs may have played a part in a downtown Rutland shootout that left the son of a former city mayor dead, and a suspected homicide in Salisbury that police say is somehow connected to the case.
“It appears that some of this could be drug-related,” Scott said Wednesday at his weekly press conference.
“We’re not sure at this point,” he added. “The investigation is ongoing, but no one is left untouched no matter what family you belong to.”
Maj. Dan Trudeau, head of the state police criminal division which is leading the probe, would only say Wednesday that the investigation is continuing. Trudeau didn’t comment on whether drugs are a factor.
The investigation into the Salisbury homicide remains ongoing. Police are still not releasing the name of the man who was killed or what information they have about connections between the cases.
Meanwhile, Vermont State Police on Wednesday released the names of four officers who were involved in the shootout Tuesday morning with Christopher G. Louras, 33, the son of former mayor Christopher Louras, after he fired on the police station.
The elder Christopher Louras served five two-year terms as the city’s top elected official before failing to win reelection in March 2017. He had been a longtime member of the city’s Board of Aldermen as well as a state representative.
VTDigger attempted to seek comment on Wednesday from the former mayor at his Rutland home, but was unsuccessful.
The officers who exchanged gunfire with Louras included three members of the Rutland City Police Department and one officer from the Rutland Town force, according to a VSP press release issued late Wednesday morning.
The Rutland City Police Department members were Sgt. Adam Lucia, a seven-year member of the department, Sgt. Kenneth Mosher, a 12-year veteran of the force, and Cpl. Elias Anderson, who has been with the department for four years. The Rutland Town Police Department member was identified as Deputy Chief Ted Washburn, a six-year veteran of the department.
Vermont State Police on Wednesday morning also released an image of the Smith & Wesson M&P-15 rifle they say the younger Louras was armed with during the exchange of gunfire with police.
Homicide in Salisbury
As the investigation into the officer-involved shooting is continuing, state police are also probing a suspected homicide of a man whose body was found early Tuesday afternoon on the edge of Route 53 in Salisbury, about a 40-minute drive from downtown Rutland.
An autopsy on the man’s body was expected to take place Wednesday at the state’s Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington to determine the cause and manner of death, as well as confirm his identity, according to the VSP statement Wednesday morning.
By late Wednesday evening police had not released information regarding that autopsy.
At the Salisbury scene, investigators appeared to be wrapping up their work there, with only three cruisers at the site Wednesday compared to a slew of police vehicles 24 hours earlier.
There are no homes near the site, which is near the entrance to a summer camp that is now closed.
Trudeau, head of the criminal division of the Vermont State Police, said at a press conference late Tuesday afternoon that through a preliminary investigation they believe Louras was in a white Ford Focus around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday and fired into the front entrance of the Rutland City police station.
No one was hurt in that incident.
Trudeau said police later found that vehicle around 7 a.m. Tuesday and, following a short pursuit, a shootout between Louras and responding police took place after Louras’ vehicle became lodged on railroad tracks on the edge of a parking lot near the downtown Rutland Shopping Plaza.
The major said he didn’t yet know exactly how many shots had been fired between Louras and the officers in the shooting, though he called the number “considerable.” Trudeau also said he wasn’t sure how many times Louras had been struck.
Louras was taken by ambulance to Rutland Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
No officers were injured in the shooting.
Among the bystanders watching police investigate the shooting was Michael Maniery, who the Rutland Herald reported Tuesday is the roommate of Christopher Louras’ cousin Nicholas Louras. Maniery said the car Christopher Louras was driving at the time of the shootout belonged to Nicholas Louras’ girlfriend.
Maniery also told the Herald that Nicholas Louras’ cellphone stopped working around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, and he wasn’t around when his girlfriend woke up. Nicholas Louras is the nephew of both the former Rutland mayor Christopher Louras, and current mayor, David Allaire, who wouldn’t comment Wednesday on his nephew.
Nicholas Louras’ relationship with then-mayor Christopher Louras, who was waging a battle against opioid addiction in the city at the time, resulted in statewide headlines in 2014 when he was charged in federal court with conspiracy to distribute heroin. Nicholas Louras later pleaded guilty and received a time-served sentence after completing a drug court program, court records state.
At that time, the elder Christopher Louras issued a statement, according to an Associated Press report, saying “that the scourge of opiates can reach into and destroy any family.”
Paid leave for 8 on duty
The four officers who fired shots are currently on paid leave, as is protocol for officer-involved shootings.
Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen said Wednesday that in addition to the three city officers who fired shots in the gunfire exchange with the younger Christopher Louras, four other members of his department are also out of paid leave related to the case.
Those department members include two dispatchers who were working that morning at the police station, he said, as well as two other officers who were at the shooting scene.
“We want to make sure we provide the support to them to make sure that they’re ready to work,” the police chief said.
Kilcullen said the three officers who fired shots will likely be on leave for the duration of the investigation. How long the other members will be on leave remains unknown, he added.
The police chief estimated that the seven members on leave represents about 20% of the department. “It presents some challenges,” he said, adding, “We’ll get through it.”
Kilcullen also said he was not aware of any previous run-ins Louras had with city police. A check of records at the Rutland County Superior criminal court yielded no cases brought against him.
Kilcullen said he wasn’t sure why the younger Christopher Louras fired on the police station.
“I can’t speak to what his motives may have been, and I’m not sure that we’ll learn that through this investigation,” he said.
“I can tell you my initial response was that it was someone who had a real disdain for police or was unhappy with police service in the recent past,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s going to be the case here.”
A ‘shock’ to the city
Allaire, the city’s current mayor, on Wednesday called the downtown shootout a “shock” to the city, and expressed support for the officers involved.
He said he expected the shooting will come up at the regular monthly meeting of Project Vision in Rutland set for Thursday. Project Vision is a coalition of community groups, churches and government agencies that banded together to provide a comprehensive solution to problems caused by opiate abuse in the city.
Allaire said he plans to attend along with members of the city police department.
“Our community is pretty resilient, thank God,” Allaire said. “At a time of tragedy, this community comes together.”
Xander Landen contributed to this report.
