Updated at 6:05 p.m.
Burlington police were still searching late Thursday afternoon for a suspect in an armed robbery who evaded capture Wednesday by using a car, a bicycle, a sailboat and foot power.
They identified the suspect Thursday as Eric Edson, 52, of Burlington. Police said he is wanted for several charges in addition to the armed robbery, including one for the alleged theft of the sailboat.
Police reported Thursday that while the search for Edson remained ongoing, the department had suspended its operations in the area around Rock Point, where Edson had abandoned a sailboat.
Edson is wanted for the armed robbery of a store in Burlington on Aug. 24 as well as impeding police and allegedly assaulting two police officers Wednesday morning as he made his getaway, according to police.
The incident began when two officers were called Wednesday morning to a welfare check for a man, later identified as Edson, who had passed out in a running vehicle, according to a police press release.
The car matched the description of one used in an armed robbery about a week ago, police said. When the officers approached the man and woke him, Edson became “belligerent and uncooperative,” according to the release.
“He then fled at a high rate of speed, assaulting both officers with the vehicle in the process.”
The car was found later Wednesday evening at the North Avenue Cooperative, a manufactured home park in Burlington’s New North End, police said. As officers attempted to seize the car, they saw Edson nearby. Edson fled again, this time on foot and then on a stolen bicycle, according to police, who said witnesses reported seeing the man had a firearm.
Edson got to Appletree Bay, where police said he then stole a sailboat and tried to flee in the craft, but was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard. Edson ran the sailboat aground at the base of the cliffs along Rock Point and abandoned the boat, according to the release.
Police said they believed Edson was hiding in the trees on the cliff. Officers at the top of the cliff tried to contact him and start negotiations, the release stated.
An earlier news report suggests this isn’t the first time Edson has led law enforcement on an extended chase.
The News & Citizen reported in November 2022 that a man named Eric Edson, 51, of Burlington, was sentenced to serve 17 months in prison followed by eight years on probation after pleading guilty to charges of grand larceny and eluding police.
Edson, the newspaper reported, led police on a wild chase on the backroads of several Lamoille County towns in December 2020. That pursuit ended in Hyde Park when Edson drove over the lawns of two residences and crashed into a stone wall, and then fled on foot before he was eventually found with the help of canine officers in a small brook, according to the newspaper report.
Lamoille County Sheriff Roger Marcoux said Thursday afternoon that he believed Eric Edson from the chase in 2022 in Lamoille County was the same person involved in the pursuit with Burlington police on Wednesday.
Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad did not return a phone call Thursday seeking comment.
