Updated Tuesday, May 9, at 1:37 p.m.
A Burlington man pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and burglary on Tuesday morning in connection with a downtown Burlington shooting on April 29.
Tyrin Smith, 19, was one of two people arrested in Burlington on Monday after being linked to the shooting that left one man injured on Main Street, the Burlington Police Department announced in a press release.
Smith, who was arraigned in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington, appeared by video conference from Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans. After entering a plea, he was ordered held without bail by Judge John Pacht.
Smith and a 17-year-old female were arrested on North Street by Burlington officers with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, according to the press release. Police listed charges of attempted murder and burglary for Smith and accessory after the fact for the 17-year-old, whom police did not identify because she is a juvenile.
Police said they believe Smith was one of two people who entered an apartment at 165 Main Street on April 29 wearing ski masks, goggles and gloves, looking for someone with whom they had exchanged “threatening” electronic messages.
According to an affidavit written by Burlington detective Eric Kratochvil, the other person at the scene of the shooting was Smith’s brother, Fortune Smith. Fortune Smith has not been charged.
Using fire escapes and crossing a roof, the two allegedly entered the apartment building from the outside. Police said the two failed to get into the apartment through a door, so they broke through a wall. Inside, Tyrin Smith allegedly shot Aquill Nickson in the chest, though police said that Nickson was not the person with whom Tyrin Smith was messaging.
Following the shooting, Nickson fled the apartment. Other people reportedly left the third-floor apartment through a window, according to the release.
Nickson was found on the sidewalk outside the apartment building near the corner of Main and Church streets. He was transported to the University of Vermont Medical Center by the Burlington Fire Department. Police said on May 1 he was in stable condition. Police said in Monday’s press release that Nickson was later arrested for felony drug possession related to “a large quantity of crack cocaine” he allegedly discarded at the apartment.
Police identified Tyrin Smith during their investigation, but he was thought to have left the state, police said in the release. After he returned to Burlington, police located him and the juvenile leaving a residence on North Street before arresting them. Tyrin Smith was arrested with a “significant” amount of drugs in his possession, the press release said. A search of the North Street address Smith had exited turned up “additional amounts” of drugs, police said.
Police said Tyrin Smith does not have a criminal history in Vermont but is a suspect in other burglaries. Nickson has a criminal history in Pennsylvania that includes illegal possession of a firearm, robbery, assault, terroristic threats and fleeing trial, according to the press release.
