Police responded to an apparent shooting in downtown Burlington just before noon on Saturday.
After receiving reports of an injured man at the corner of Church Street and Main Street, officers from the Burlington Police Department and Vermont State Police found a male victim in his 40s lying on his back on the sidewalk outside of Manhattan Pizza. The man had apparently been shot in the chest, according to a press release issued by acting Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad.
Police said they believe the shooting took place in an apartment on an upper floor of 165 Main Street, near where the victim was found, Murad said in the press release. Trooper Omar Bulle of the Vermont State Police told VTDigger that the victim was alive when an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital.
VTDigger staffers witnessed at least seven Burlington police cruisers responding to the scene, as well as members of the Burlington Fire Department. Several officers carried long guns outside Manhattan Pizza as they entered the stairwell leading to the apartments upstairs.
Despite the large police presence, pedestrians looked on from across Main Street. Just yards away, outside of Burlington City Hall, protesters had gathered to call for an end to genocide in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray. A little more than an hour after police arrived, supporters of the National Alliance on Mental Illness marched down the street across from the crime scene as part of a separate event, chanting for an end to stigma and beating drums as it began to rain.
Ally Peeters, a bartender and server at Ruben James, a bar next door to the scene of the shooting, said that police were investigating footage from the bar’s security cameras. “I went outside and the cops told me to stay inside,” Peeters said. “And then we’ve just been getting bits and pieces.”
Daniel Myette, a Burlington resident who has lived on Church Street for over 30 years, was among those standing outside as police investigated. Myette described the immediate area as known for drug use. “In London, they would call it a ‘shooting gallery,’” Myette said. “And we don’t mean with guns. We mean needles.”
As of 2:30 p.m. Burlington police officers remained stationed outside of Manhattan Pizza, patrolling an area cordoned off with crime scene tape. According to Murad, the investigation into the incident is “in its earliest stages.” He said the shooting was the second such incident his department has recorded thus far in 2023.
Glenn Russell contributed reporting.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated when National Alliance on Mental Illness supporters passed by the scene.
