Following the revelation that Burlington’s acting police chief, Jon Murad, allegedly threatened the arrest of a UVM Medical Center surgeon while he treated a gunshot victim last summer, some city councilors are questioning the chief’s behavior — and Mayor Miro Weinberger’s handling of the matter.
The surgeon filed a complaint in August 2022 with the Burlington Police Commission, which referred it to the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, where it is still under consideration. Seven Days broke news of the complaint in a story on Thursday.
Some cited the incident as further evidence that Murad should not be made the permanent chief.
City Councilor Zoraya Hightower, P-Ward 1, said in a written statement Friday that the episode was in the “same vein” as feedback the council received in 2021 that Murad “had shown a pattern of ‘intimidation’ when his authority was questioned.”
“At the same time, the Mayor has not given the council any information on how this issue has been systemically addressed,” Hightower said.
Councilor Melo Grant, P-Central District, who was sworn in to her seat Monday, said she “wouldn’t just be disappointed, I would be scared” if Weinberger nominated Murad for the non-interim post. Grant previously served on the police commission, a citizen board which reviews complaints against Burlington officers, and has been an outspoken critic of Murad.
The city has been without a permanent chief since December 2019. Weinberger, a Democrat, sought to appoint Murad to the role in February 2022, but the council, controlled by Progressives at the time, voted down the appointment. Last December, when the council tipped in Democrats’ favor, Weinberger announced that he planned to try again.
Murad declined interview requests Friday. He and the mayor said they met with the surgeon, who has not been publicly identified, after the latter filed the complaint, and the acting chief apologized. Neither the mayor nor the chief has confirmed that the acting chief threatened to arrest the doctor, but have acknowledged a confrontation.
“I was wrong, which is why I apologized,” he said in an emailed statement. “The doctor deserved an apology, and that’s what you do when you’re wrong.”
In an interview, the mayor said he stands by Murad and plans to nominate him again as permanent chief in the coming months.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” Weinberger said. “And when you make a mistake, quickly taking responsibility for them I think is the right thing to do. I believe he did that here.”
Other councilors reached on Friday adopted a wait-and-see stance toward Murad but questioned why the complaint had not been made public prior to Seven Days’ reporting and why, for several months, it had been withheld from the council.
“I am glad that the community is now aware that such (a) concerning incident took place last August and the city council was not briefed about it” until December, said Ali Dieng, I-Ward 7.
Dieng suggested the mayor should wait for the results of the criminal justice council’s investigation before bringing Murad’s appointment up for a vote. “But if he does right now, I’m not comfortable in voting in support,” said Dieng, who voted in favor of Murad last year.
Ben Traverse, D-Ward 5, said he was “grateful” that the public was now aware of the complaint.
“After learning of the complaint involving Acting Chief Murad, I strongly felt the public also needed to be aware of the details before the Mayor moved forward with an appointment,” Traverse said in an emailed statement.
When asked whether he would vote in favor of Murad, Traverse, who previously voiced support for the chief’s nomination, said he thought the question was premature since Weinberger has not yet made the nomination.
City Council President Karen Paul, D-Ward 6, said she thought there would be “a lot of work” to build common ground on the issue of Murad’s appointment. “I think that there’s a long road ahead in order for us to do that,” said Paul, who declined to say how she’d vote if he were nominated.
Councilors Joan Shannon, D-South District, and Mark Barlow, I-North District, expressed support for Murad. Shannon said she thought Murad, during his time as acting chief, had been “trying to prevent further harm in the community” but added that “I think he may have been overzealous in that effort” at the hospital in August.
According to emails Weinberger’s office shared with VTDigger, the police commission received the complaint on Aug. 15.
Four days earlier, authorities had taken a gunshot victim to UVM Medical Center following a shooting on Shelburne Road. According to Seven Days’ reporting, an officer was assigned to stay close to the victim in case he revealed who had shot him, but the surgeon repeatedly cleared the room. The “back-and-forth” resulted in the surgeon reporting the officer to hospital officials and a subsequent confrontation between the surgeon and Murad after the latter showed up on scene, the newspaper reported.
Murad then allegedly threatened to arrest the surgeon.
Later in August, 19-year-old Burlington resident Abukar Hilowle pleaded not guilty on attempted murder charges related to the Aug. 11 shooting and another that took place two days later near City Hall Park.
Weinberger pointed to “positive characteristics of (Murad) that are also part of how this incident unfolded.” The mayor explained that during a summer that featured numerous shootings, Murad was active at the crime scenes — including the Aug. 11 shooting — and said he made a mistake “in service of trying to find out” who the shooter was.
Weinberger said around the same time the complaint was filed to the police commission, the doctor also reached out directly to Weinberger. On Aug. 19, Weinberger and Murad met with the doctor and a hospital supervisor.
“It was a meeting I thought was productive,” Weinberger said, and he thought everyone ended the meeting “on the same page.”
A few days later, the mayor sent an email to members of the police commission describing the meeting with the doctor. Weinberger told the commission that “I am now satisfied that this matter is resolved.”
Nevertheless, according to a timeline of events shared by the mayor’s office, the commission referred the complaint to the Vermont Criminal Justice Council on Oct. 23 after discussing it in executive session.
The timeline from the mayor’s office also states that in early November, Weinberger and Paul, the council president, met with members of the police commission.
Weinberger said he began considering bringing Murad up for another shot at a non-interim appointment as chief after Democrats gained a plurality with a Dec. 6 special election win, prompting him to alert the council to the complaint against Murad that month. He also said Paul had pushed for the disclosure to the council in early December.
After Weinberger received a memo from an attorney about the referral to the criminal justice council on Dec. 20, the mayor notified the City Council in a memo on Dec. 22. The council entered executive session on Jan. 9 to discuss the matter, according to Weinberger.
The criminal justice council investigation is still active. Christopher Brickell, deputy director of the council, said in an email that he couldn’t comment on active complaints.
The public disclosure of the complaint arrives after the failure on Town Meeting Day of a proposed citizen oversight board over the police department.
Tyler Pastorok is part of the group People for Police Accountability which fought for the charter change proposal. He said “it’s definitely frustrating to be hearing about this now and also not surprising to us.”
“It doesn’t matter how stressful the situation is. Flexing your authority is not how you build trust or deescalate a situation,” Pastorok said in an interview on Friday. “And yeah, so this is exactly why we need more transparency.”
Dieng said in his written statement that the complaint against Murad was part of “several problematic issues related to policing and public safety in Burlington.”
“I hope that those being policed have now gained a better understanding as to why some elected officials and activists pushed hard for an Independent Community Policing Oversight Board for Burlington,” Dieng wrote.
