Overview:
James Crary, a 36-year-old man, was shot dead by police in Springfield while they were attempting to arrest another man. Crary was killed after he allegedly "accelerated toward officers" in a vehicle. Crary's death is now under investigation by the Vermont State Police. The property where Crary was killed is described as a "well-known drug house" and is frequented by transients. Crary leaves behind a 10-year-old daughter.
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — The 36-year-old man who was shot to death by police last month appears to have gotten caught up in an operation that was targeting another man for arrest, according to people who were at the address when the shooting occurred.
On the evening of Aug. 21, James Crary was in a vehicle when he allegedly “accelerated toward officers” who were “outside their vehicles” during a police response at 78 Valley St. when they opened fire, Vermont State Police said in a news release. Crary was struck by gunfire multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene.
The circumstances of Crary’s death are now under investigation by the State Police, which was not involved in the “underlying operation” that led to the shooting. The two police officers who fired their weapons — Springfield police officer Vincent Franchi and Windsor County Sheriff’s deputy Bryan Jalava— have been placed on paid leave and are cooperating with the investigation, according to police.
The property in question is frequented by transients and is described by police as a “well-known drug house.” In interviews, people who said they were present at the time of the shooting described the aftermath.
“The police said, ‘We weren’t even here for James Crary,’ ” said Khristal Blanchard, a resident at 78 Valley St., who witnessed part of the incident.
According to Blanchard, police told her that they had come to apprehend a suspect in a “hostage and kidnapping situation” earlier that day in Springfield.
Springfield police and Windsor sheriff deputies — officials have not disclosed how many — “responded” to the Valley Street address shortly before 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 21 “as part of an open investigation,” Vermont State Police said in its news release. When they arrived, “they encountered a man” — later identified as Crary — “in a vehicle outside the home.”
Crary “accelerated toward the officers,” who “were standing outside their vehicles” when they “opened fire.” Crary was struck by multiple bullets and “pronounced dead at the scene,” police said.
The Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington conducted an autopsy and concluded Crary died by “gunshot wounds to the head,” said Vermont State Police.
Investigators are reviewing cruiser and body cam video footage of the incident, including “third party” video of the incident, said VSP spokesman Adam Silverman.
Springfield Police Chief Jeffrey Burnham referred questions about the police operation and shooting to Vermont State Police.
In an interview, Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer said his department’s deputies were at 78 Valley St. that evening to “help Springfield arrest a suspect on a pretty serious charge.” Palmer identified their target as Matthew Hewitt.
People at the Valley Street address said that police told them after the shooting occurred that they had come there to apprehend Hewitt, who they were seeking in connection with an incident earlier that day in Springfield.
“The police said, ‘We’re sorry this happened … we were here looking for Matthew Hewitt,’ due to some kind of hostage and kidnapping situation. That’s exactly what they said to me,” Blanchard told the Valley News. Blanchard referred to Hewitt as her former boyfriend.
Following the shooting, police apprehended Hewitt, who was inside the house, without incident. He is charged with assaulting and robbing $300 from a 31-year-old Springfield man who was allegedly held against his will at a nearby apartment, according to court documents. Hewitt, 35, remains held without bail in prison in Springfield.
‘Don’t have anywhere else to go’
The property where Crary was killed includes a dilapidated 134-year-old house whose owner, Paul Lachapelle, has opened to people who are displaced. (Lachapelle is the father of Paul Lachapelle Jr., who is currently in prison awaiting trial on a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a Springfield man in 2022).
A former garage behind the house has been converted into a lounge where people, sometimes as many as a dozen, gather and watch DVDs on TV. During a recent visit, one man was observed on a sofa, keeled over and retching.
“People come and congregate here because they don’t have anywhere else to go,” Lachapelle, 64, said in an interview in front of his home.
He said his parents acquired 78 Valley St. in 1964 and that he came back to live there in 2018.
“I don’t like seeing people suffer on the street,” Lachapelle said.
He said he forbids people who hang out at his property from possessing guns.
“No weapons and no warrants,” Lachapelle said.
In the past 20 months, Springfield’s police, fire and EMS call logs show a total of 99 records for 78 Valley St., including 30 for “assists,” 15 to execute arrest warrants, nine for medical episodes, six for “drugs,” two for fires and two for “animals.”
Patrick Banks, regional manager for state’s Division of Fire Safety, said via email that his agency and the Springfield Fire Department inspected the property in June and found “multiple tenants were living there at the time of inspection and the water had been shut off due to unpaid bills.”
The inspection “found several fire safety violations, some of which were later corrected.” But the “the lack of water” violated the state’s rental property health code and “the owner could not restore service before the final inspection” on Aug. 4, Banks said.
“The town and partner agencies offered housing alternatives and all tenants voluntarily moved out,” Banks said.
However, since the owner is no longer renting rooms, the property is now deemed “a single-family owner-occupied home” and therefore falls outside applicable safety code for rental properties.
Springfield Fire Chief Paul Stagner, who also serves as the town’s health officer, confirmed via email that 78 Valley St. “has no water and is occupied by the owner and one other” person, adding “it is not ‘condemned’ at this time.”
Stagner said he would be meeting “with other town and state officials about this property that will potentially change the situation at this address.”
‘Was this really called for?’
Crary most recently had been residing in Newport, and authorities have not said why he was in Springfield the night of the shooting. But people who were at the address that evening said Crary had come to check up on a female friend who was there.
“It was a pop-in visit,” said Randi Sargent, who was among a group watching a movie in the garage space when Crary had appeared at the door.
He stayed for a little while and “had just said goodbye and left,” Sargent said. Shortly afterward she heard four gunshots.
“I thought it was someone shooting at the house,” she said.
In an interview, Blanchard said she briefly chatted with Crary in the driveway and then went back up to her room on the second floor of the house.
“I didn’t even know the cops were here,” said Blanchard.
When she got to her room, she heard gunshots and looked outside the window over the driveway: “I saw James’ head go down and hit the steering wheel.”
“The car started to roll back and was smoking,” Blanchard said.
She said she started to scream and two people with her in the room — one of whom was Hewitt — pulled her away from the window.
Both Sargent and Blanchard said they heard a total of four shots.
Sargent pointed out bullet holes in the wall of the converted garage used as a lounge space that she said came from the police gunfire.
Several people were sitting on the sofa watching the movie when bullets pierced the wall, which barely missed her boyfriend sitting at the end, Sargent said. When they heard the shots, one in the group shut the door to the room.
“We laid on the floor over here and we barricaded the door until (the police) told us to open it,” Sargent said.
Blanchard said after the shooting she heard police yelling to “come down with your hands up” and the people upstairs — including Hewitt — all came down.
Blanchard said she remonstrated the officers over the shooting: “What was this all about? Like, are you serious? Was this really called for?”
Blanchard said one of the officers responded: “This was not what we meant to happen. We’re so sorry for your loss. We weren’t here for (Crary). We were looking for Matthew Hewitt.”
Crary’s body lay covered in the driveway for more than 12 hours before it was transported to the medical examiner’s office in Burlington, according to people at the house.
Shooting victim leaves behind a daughter
Although court records show Crary had a warrant out for his arrest at the time of his death for failing to appear for court dates on drug sale and possession charges, family and friends say that he did not have a history of violence.
“He wasn’t violent. Maybe a little dumb at times,” said Crary’s sister, Kristin Crary.
“He wanted people to do better in life, even if he wasn’t,” Kristin Crary said. “He even told me the last time he got out of jail, ‘I’m getting too old for this. I need to turn my life around.’ “
According to court records, Crary had stayed out of trouble for several years before he was charged with possession and and sale of drugs earlier this year.
Kristin Crary said her brother grew up alternating between his mother’s in Claremont and at their father’s in Canaan. He attended Mascoma Valley High School and had jobs waxing and stripping floors, although work was never steady.
Julie Morse, who knew Crary when they grew up together in Claremont and had been a friend for 20 years, said he “would never purposefully been out to hurt anybody ever.”
Morse said that when Crary could get work, he liked buffing the floors of Hannaford and Market Basket on the overnight shift because “he could be left alone independently.”
Crary left behind a 10-year-old daughter who “meant a lot to him,” Morse said.
The day after the shooting occurred, Morse went to 78 Valley Street to talk with neighbors and people there about how events had unfolded. She said she suspects that Crary was trying to pull out of the driveway when he became “startled” by the large police contingent that had come to arrest Hewitt.
“James was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.