Updated at 8:13 p.m.
This article by Lisa Scagliotti was first published in the Waterbury Roundabout on Feb. 15, 2023. VTDigger contributed reporting.
Authorities are investigating a mysterious incident that took place in Waterbury late Wednesday morning involving a man bleeding from his arm.
In a press release issued that afternoon, Vermont State Police characterized the incident as “a non-fatal shooting.” But in an update Wednesday evening, state police said that “detectives have been unable to confirm whether the man’s injuries were the result of gunfire or some other cause.”
Police are investigating how he was injured and whether anybody else was involved, the agency said in the update, and did not identify him. Detectives have interviewed witnesses and are attempting to obtain search warrants for several cabins on Cabin Lane, just off Vermont Route 100 in Waterbury, according to police.
The incident began around 10 a.m., when Cabin Lane property owners encountered an injured man who reported having been shot, according to the state police’s Wednesday evening update. When the owners called 911, the man left the scene.
Around 11 a.m., authorities received a call from Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea, where the man had entered bleeding from his arm. The cafe’s owner, Holly Alves, said the man told staff that he had been in the woods on a snowmobile that had broken down or crashed. “He asked to use the telephone,” Alves said.
A customer in the cafe who happened to be a traveling nurse, along with a staffer with experience as a firefighter, offered to give the man first aid, Alves said.
The injury looked serious enough to require medical attention and aspects of the man’s story seemed inconsistent — including that he did not appear dressed for snowmobiling — which led to the call to 911.
The man was in a conference room using the telephone when he abruptly left the cafe, according to Alves. He was met outside by multiple troopers responding with guns drawn.
“There was a heavy police presence,” Alves said. “The guy was running from the cops.”
He was transported by ambulance to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, according to state police.
