LEBANON — New Hampshire and Vermont investigators appear to be at odds over a shooting this past April that was reported to authorities in Lebanon but may have occurred elsewhere, according to police.
After receiving a report of a shooting just before 7 a.m. on April 30, Lebanon police responded to Hardy Hill Road where it passes under Interstate 89 and located a victim who subsequently received medical treatment on the scene before being transferred to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the Valley News previously reported.
The victim, a 33-year-old Vermont man, has not been cooperating with investigators, “which has significantly limited our ability to corroborate the circumstances surrounding the incident,” Lebanon Police Chief Phillip Roberts stated in an email on Thursday.
Roberts declined to identify the man, who was the one who called police and told them he had been shot. Initially, police believed that the incident occurred “on Hardy Hill Road in the area of Interstate 89 overpass in Lebanon,” according to a Lebanon police news release from April.
But based on the ongoing investigation to date, police now believe “the shooting likely occurred in Vermont rather than in New Hampshire,” Roberts said.
“Available information” suggests the incident is drug-related, he added.
“The information developed during our investigation has been provided to the Vermont State Police for any follow-up they deem appropriate,” he said.
Vermont State Police, however, does not appear inclined to take up the case.
“There are serious concerns about the veracity of the information suggesting the shooting took place in Vermont, and no evidence has been uncovered that points to the incident occurring here,” Adam Silverman, spokesperson for the Vermont State Police, stated in an email on Friday.
The case, Silverman added, remains entirely in the hands of New Hampshire authorities “unless and until new credible information arises that points to the incident having occurred in Vermont.”
Roberts said Lebanon has passed multiple leads to VSP.
“My question to (VSP) is, ‘What have you done with the information Lebanon Police have provided you?'” Roberts said in a phone interview on Friday.
Inaccuracies in the victim’s account of the incident and interviews with witnesses suggested that the shooting occurred at a residence in South Royalton, he said.
“Known-associates” of the victim identified multiple residences in the South Royalton area that could be related to the incident.
“Vermont State Police did assist us in going to the first identified address, but nobody was present,” Roberts said.
In early May, Lebanon police contacted Vermont State Police Detective Lt. Michael Studin about a second address.
“They had information that it was not safe for law enforcement to randomly approach the house, so they were going to get back to us,” Roberts said. “That hasn’t happened.”
Studin was not immediately available on Friday.
