Burlington
Burlington Police Officer David Bowers, 23, shot and killed Ralph “Phil” Grenon inside his downtown apartment after a five-hour standoff during which police say they went to great lengths to resolve the situation without hurting Grenon.
It is the third time in four years that police in Vermont have killed a person identified as mentally ill whom they had set out to help. Two of those killings were by Burlington police officers, and the third occurred in Thetford.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger has promised an internal review at the city level “to determine lessons from this incident that should inform our handling of future similar situations.” However, that’s unlikely to satisfy those calling for greater oversight of city police.
“People were freaked out and angry,” said City Councilor Sara Giannoni, P-Ward 3, describing the reaction of residents who crowded a Police Commission meeting Tuesday night.
Karen Porter, a social worker who was among those at the meeting, described in a statement the outrage she and others who work with the city’s poor and mentally ill are feeling in the wake of Grenon’s killing.
Porter called for an end to the “reckless, threatening and escalated tactics by the police towards individuals in vulnerable situations” and said she and others will continue to push for “independent oversight of the Burlington Police Department.”
Police Chief Brandon del Pozo, who was on the scene for much of Monday’s standoff, has said his officers were anything but cavalier in their handling of the situation.
Del Pozo has said repeatedly that he is committed to transparency and accountability, holding multiple briefings for the public and the press where he offered as much detail as he said the ongoing state police investigation into the shooting will allow. He said he wants the body camera video captured during the standoff released to the public as quickly as possible.
The chief said his officers acted with restraint and did not rush the situation, but that it needed to be resolved or Grenon might have hurt himself.
Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he doesn’t buy that argument. Although this situation played out over five hours, instead of the minutes it took an officer in 2013 to shoot a shovel-wielding man who was also identified as mentally ill, Gilbert said police are still too quick to use deadly force.
“I think there are other alternatives out there that for some reason police are not reaching for, and instead they’re reaching for a gun because that’s the ultimate control, or force, that an officer has over a citizen,” Gilbert said.
“Now there’s a 23-year-old Vermont man who killed someone he bore no malice against, someone he tried to help and ended up killing,” Gilbert added.
Those advocating for outside review say the state police officers who will conduct the investigation into Bowers’ actions and the prosecutors who will review their report work too closely with the Burlington Police Department to be objective in deciding if the killing was justified.
City Councilor Selene Colburn, P-East District, said she has tremendous respect for state police and Chittenden County State’s Attorney TJ Donovan, but the fact that both are in “near day-to-day working relationships” with Burlington police makes it difficult to accept their findings.
Donovan rejects the notion that his office is unable to be objective in reviewing police shootings, and he noted that the attorney general’s office also reviews such incidents and can bring charges.
“These are unfortunate cases, and we hope not to have to review them, but when we do we’re transparent about the basis of our decisions,” Donovan said. “It’s our obligation to do it in an honest, transparent way. When we have to hold someone accountable we will. If it’s justified we’ll explain why.”