NEW HAVEN, Vt. — Vermont State Police say two troopers shot and critically wounded a domestic violence suspect late Tuesday night in Bristol, Vt., after he refused their orders to drop a shotgun during a confrontation with the officers.
State Police Maj. Dan Trudeau said the suspect, 28-year-old Greg West, was taken by helicopter to University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington for treatment. He was listed Wednesday morning in critical but stable condition after coming out of surgery.
“I don’t really have a lot of details on his injuries,” Trudeau said, adding, “Troopers did fire multiple rounds.”
Trudeau, speaking Wednesday morning during a briefing with reporters at the state police barracks in New Haven, said the investigation is still in the early stages and he doesn’t know at this time how many times, or where, West had been shot.
According to a preliminary investigation, he said, a relative of West called police around 9:50 p.m. Tuesday from a home on the Lower Notch Road reporting that West was intoxicated, threatening and had damaged the home.
The caller also said that there were several children inside the residence and West had a shotgun.
Two state troopers and a Bristol police officer responded to the residence, where they found West on the steep driveway between the home and the road. Police said the man refused commands to drop the weapon. At about 10:30 p.m., the troopers fired multiple rounds from their patrol rifles, striking West several times. No one else was hurt.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Two state police troopers and an officer with the Bristol Police Department responded to the home and found West on the steep driveway between the home and the road, according to Trudeau.
The troopers and the officer, he said, tried through verbal exchanges to get West to put down his shotgun.
“This went back and forth for several minutes,” Trudeau said.
However, Trudeau said, West refused and the two troopers fired multiple rounds from their patrol rifles, striking West several times, Trudeau said.
The Bristol officer did not fire, he added.
The two troopers and the Bristol officers then provided aid to West and an ambulance was called to the scene, according to Trudeau.
No one else was injured in the incident, he said.
Trudeau said as the investigation was still in the early stages he didn’t know the make, model or whether West’s shotgun was loaded.
“That will be forthcoming at some point,” the major said.
Trudeau said investigators were still trying to determine if the shooting was captured on video by police cameras, including dash cams from the cruisers.
“We’re examining that now,” the major said.
The names of the troopers involved in the shooting will not be released until the initial stages of the investigation are complete, per state police protocol, Trudeau said.
Their names could be released as early as later Wednesday.
They will be put on administrative leave for at least five days. They will then return to administrative duty while the investigation remains under review by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the Addison County State’s Attorney’s Office.
The Vermont State Police Major Crime Unit, Bureau of Criminal Investigations, Crime Scene Search Team and Field Force Division are conducting investigations into the domestic violence incident leading to the call to police as well as the officer-involved shooting.
The major did say that West was known to police, though he didn’t immediately know of West’s past criminal history.
The incident Tuesday night took place about three miles from where state police spent Tuesday investigating a murder-suicide on the Upper Notch Road earlier this week.
Trudeau said the two incidents are not related.