City Market’s downtown Burlington location at 82 South Winooski Avenue closed at 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday and will remain closed for the rest of the day following an attempted shoplifting incident on Tuesday. The episode involved the assault of four individuals, a deployed fire extinguisher and broken glass. The co-op’s South End store remains open, and management said it expects the downtown store to reopen for normal hours at 7 a.m. on Thursday.
Cheray MacFarland, City Market’s director of purchasing and marketing, confirmed that the fire extinguisher was set off during a shoplifting attempt. In addition, MacFarland said, “A staff member was hit with a glass bottle that was thrown by the assailant and went by ambulance to UVM.” She said the Burlington Police Department was on-site immediately and arrested the person.
Interim Chief of Police Shawn Burke confirmed that officers responded to an incident at the downtown City Market shortly before 3 p.m. on Tuesday and arrested Dillan Peet, 20, of Plainfield. Burke said Peet is accused of committing a number of crimes at City Market, including damaging more than $1,000 worth of items and assaulting four individuals, including a police officer. He said Peet will be formally arraigned on Wednesday.
In the email announcing the closure, City Market said management met with the Burlington Fire Department and the Vermont Department of Health to confirm that the nontoxic chemicals released from the fire extinguisher carry no health risk. The store is cleaning up from the incident during the closure.
As previously reported by Seven Days, this is the second winter that City Market has closed the café in its downtown location due to safety and security concerns. In a December email, the co-op said it hoped to reopen the downtown café in March, “when we feel that it is safe for our customers and staff.”
In an email to Seven Days following that announcement, MacFarland told the paper: “We have multiple security incidents almost daily at this point.”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!