BURLINGTON – A Burlington police officer has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges accusing him of firing his gun toward two minors in a vehicle last summer while responding to a call about a possible abduction.
Officer Jeffrey Baur told an investigator that he thought the gun accidentally fired, according to charging documents made public Friday. A law enforcement expert who conducted a review determined that “regardless of whether the discharge was intentional or negligent” Baur pointed and discharged his gun at two minors under circumstances that did not justify the use of deadly force, the documents added.
Neither of the minors were struck by the bullet and there were no injuries in the incident that took place on Aug. 10, 2025, in the area of Prospect Hill in Burlington.
Baur entered his not guilty plea to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment through his attorney William Vasiliou during an arraignment Friday morning in Chittenden County Superior criminal court.
Both charges against Baur alleged that he “recklessly engaged in conduct” that put a person in danger of death or serious injury.
A large group of his supporters, including many law enforcement officers, sat in three rows of seats behind him in the courtroom.
The Vermont Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, did not ask Judge Timothy Doherty to impose any bail in the case. Doherty did set a release condition for Baur prohibiting him from any contact with the two minors who were in the vehicle.
State police conducted the investigation into the shooting and, after a review, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office opted to file the charges against Baur.
The incident leading to the charges began around 12:40 a.m. on Aug. 10 when a person called 911 reporting that while walking on North Prospect Street he saw a vehicle following a female onto a dead-end street, the state police Detective Sgt. Steven Gelder wrote in an affidavit.
The caller reported seeing a male grab a female and shove her into the vehicle before driving off, Gelder wrote.
Baur and other officers responded to the scene, the affidavit stated, and Baur radioed in to dispatch that he spotted a Nissan on Prospect Hill that then took off and drove on the sidewalk.
At one point, the affidavit stated, Baur’s body camera footage appears to show him exit his cruiser pointing his firearm in the direction of the Nissan’s driver side, which was mostly on a sidewalk.
The footage shows Baur appearing to fire a single shot from his gun, striking an area between the driver’s side door and the rear driver’s side passenger door, Gelder wrote.
The two minors in the vehicle put their hands up and got out of the vehicle.
Baur then told another officer to take over as he walked away and he could be heard on the recording saying, “fuck,” twice before the body worn camera is muted, Gelder wrote.
One of the minors, a girl whose age was redacted in the filing, told an investigator that she and the other minor, a boy, were arguing in the car and she got out of the vehicle twice and was brought back in by the boy both times.
The boy, who was driving, told an investigator that he got scared when police arrived and tried to drive onto the sidewalk to get away and got stuck, the affidavit stated.
Both minors said they never heard any commands from police before the shooting, Gelder wrote.
Baur told an investigator that he heard on the radio what sounded like a kidnapping in progress and after driving to the scene saw the Nissan with its brake lights on in the middle of the street, the affidavit stated.
Baur said he pulled behind the vehicle and radioed in the license plate to dispatch when the vehicle began to move, eventually driving over a curb and onto the grass between the sidewalk and the road, according to the affidavit.
Baur said that the vehicle was parallel to him and on the curb and he then started to get out of his cruiser, the affidavit stated. He reported that he could see the two minors in the vehicle and said that he feared that the driver was trying to leave the scene which could set off a pursuit.
“Officer Baur said that at some point when he drew his firearm out, to when he was pointing it, the firearm discharged,” Gelder wrote. “He said that he did not recall pulling the trigger and that he did not know if it was an unconscious thing that happened or it was a negligent discharge.”
Following that initial interview, Gelder wrote, Baur was given a chance to see his body camera footage. “After his review of the recording, Officer Baur said that he was drawing his firearm while closing his cruiser door, and that the door struck him causing the gun to accidentally go off,” the affidavit stated.
Eric Daigle, described in the affidavit as an “expert consultant in law enforcement operations and use of force,” found in his review that Baur’s actions, including the firing of the gun, were “not reasonable, proportional, or necessary when considering the totality of the circumstances.”
Also, according to Daigle’s review, Baur’s claim that his vehicle door struck him causing the accidental discharge did not match up with the camera footage which shows the door was closed and then Baur raised and extended his arm and pointed the firearm, the affidavit stated.
“Daigle also stated within his report that Officer Baur failed to adhere to fundamental firearms safety protocols, including trigger discipline and muzzle control,” according to the affidavit.
Vasiliou, Baur’s attorney, told reporters after his client’s arraignment Friday that he only recently received the affidavit in support of the charges against Baur. He said he had questions about some of the information in that filing, but declined to elaborate.
“Certainly, I think the benefit of the doubt, at a minimum, needs to be given to him that he was just doing his job,” Vasiliou said.
Interim Burlington Police Chief Shawn Burke said Friday that Baur was currently on paid administrative leave.
Friday wasn’t the first time Baur found himself a defendant in a criminal case.
He pleaded guilty in 2024 to a misdemeanor charge of negligent operation after he was stopped driving his motorcycle about 100 miles per hour while off duty and paid a $300 fine plus other court fees, according to a Seven Days article from that time.
If convicted of the most recent charges, Baur faces up to two years jail.
