Two people are facing charges related to a shooting that critically injured a Vermont man outside a St. Johnsbury Maplefields on Tuesday night, police said.
Felipe Cotto Jr., 40, of Chicopee, Massachusetts, faces charges of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault, Vermont State Police said in a press release late Wednesday night.
Casey Jean Squires, 21, of Sheffield has been charged with accessory to attempted second-degree murder and accessory to aggravated assault, police said.
Both are due in court in St. Johnsbury to answer to the charges on Thursday. Cotto was ordered held without bail, while Squires was held for lack of $25,000 cash or surety, police said.
Nathan Smires, 36, of Barnet suffered “life-threatening injuries” in the shooting, police said. He was first brought to Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury and later transferred to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire.
The shooting was reported shortly before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night outside the Maplefields on Route 2, police said. The shooting “occurred due to a dispute between Cotto and Smires,” they said, and all the people involved knew each other.
Vermont State Police and St. Johnsbury police on Tuesday executed a search warrant at a home on Mathewson Hill Road in Lyndon, where they said they had taken two individuals into custody and were interviewing four more and gathering evidence.
The investigation is ongoing.
