Two police officers shot and killed a despondent Sheldon man who held a gun to his head after a traffic stop on Interstate 89 in Bolton on Sunday — the latest in a rash of police shootings in Vermont.
Benjamin Gregware, 42, walked toward the officers and refused their commands to drop his gun after he was pulled over around 4 p.m. Trooper Chris Brown and Richmond Police Officer Richard Greenough fired 12 shots, hitting Gregware three times, State Police Col. Matt Birmingham said during a press conference Monday.
It was the third fatal Vermont State Police shooting in six months. Brown, who has been a trooper since 2012, fired his weapon in all three incidents.
On January 16, Brown and nine other troopers opened fire on Nathan Giffin, 32, on the grounds of Montpelier High School, where Giffin fled after robbing the nearby Vermont State Employees Credit Union. Police said that Giffin made threats and brandished a handgun that turned out to be a BB gun.
On September 1, Brown was one of five troopers in Poultney who shot and killed Michael Battles, who was also wielding a BB gun.
In October 2015, Brown shot a Brattleboro man in the leg during a standoff in Fayston. The suspect in that case was holding a plastic air gun.
Brown was cleared of wrongdoing in the Poultney and and Fayston shootings. A legal review of the Montpelier shooting is ongoing.
Two weeks ago, Brown was removed from the State Police Tactical Services Unit, which handled the Giffin response, Birmingham confirmed Monday. Birmingham declined to provide details, citing personnel privacy.
While troopers typically return to work three days after a shooting, Brown will remain on paid administrative leave until legal reviews are completed, Birmingham said. Those reviews usually take months.
Taking extended leave after a shooting will be new state police policy, Birmingham said.
“I worry about Trooper Brown and the impact this is having on him … I’m worried about his mental health,” Birmingham said.
Birmingham was contracting with a consultant to review policies and procedures for the use of lethal force, he said.
“Certainly, there is great cause for concern when you have multiple officer-involved shootings in a short period of time,” Birmingham said.
The Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s office will review the Gregware shooting.
A statement provided by the Vermont State Police gives the following account of Sunday’s events:
Gregware’s ex-wife, Melissa, called police around 3 p.m. to say she was concerned about him. He had seemed intoxicated during a visit with their children, she said. He had recently been laid off, and at one point, he told her that he was going to “take care of some stuff,” according to police.
After leaving her house, he called her and said he had gone to the Walmart in St. Albans and bought ammunition.
Police issued a “be on the lookout” warning regarding Gregware. Trooper Jay Riggen called Gregware’s cellphone. Gregware said he was “not OK,” and that he was “an alcoholic and he felt that he was losing his children,” police said. He said he had a 9mm pistol with him.
Gregware, who was driving on I-89, stayed on the phone with Riggen for 20 minutes. He said he was going to head south until he ran out of gas and then commit suicide, police said.
“You can bring all the guns you want,” he reportedly said.
Brown and Greenough were driving on I-89 looking for Gregware. They caught up with him at 3:50 p.m. in Bolton, pulled him over and drew their weapons. Brown had an AR-14 rifle and Greenough had a .40-caliber pistol.
Gregware stepped out of his vehicle, pointed his gun to his head and approached the officers. He ignored multiple commands to put his gun down, state police said. Gregware never pointed the gun at police.
Brown fired seven rounds and Greenough fired five. Gregware was hit in the head, shoulder and torso, state police Major Glenn Hall said. Police acknowledged any stray shots could have endangered passing motorists, but said there was no time to close the road. The shooting occurred about a minute after Gregware pulled over, Birmingham said.
Gregware’s weapon, a 9mm tactical pistol, was found loaded with a round in the chamber.
Cruiser and body cameras recorded footage of the incident, and police said they would release it once legal reviews are complete.
Hall said authorities are investigating whether Gregware fired a shot toward the parked police cruisers.
Greenough will be on leave for at least six days, Richmond Police Chief Alan Buck said. The fatal shooting was the first ever by a Richmond police officer.
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So this is the third deadly shooting by Officer Brown?
Seems statistically unlikely; how many dead citizens do most officers generate in an entire career?
And let me get this straight; they were going to try to prevent him from committing suicide, and that’s why they fired 12 rounds at him?
What a mess. I can’t imagine the dead guy’s wife is feeling good about calling the cops.
Dude was out on I-89 with an AR-14 on a Sunday afternoon? A lot to review there.
12 shots and only 3 hits on a perp not firing at them is not good shooting; especially with live traffic whizzing by.
More range time is in order
Three people dead by his hand in six months. Brown is a danger and a threat to the people of Vermont. The mere fact that, on an interstate highway, using a high powered rifle, he fired seven shots and another officer five, hitting the victim three times, should be sufficient to take away his ability to place the lives of innocent motorists in terrible danger forever. He seems to have a propensity to resort to deadly force as his first response. We do not need trigger happy thugs hiding behind badges in Vermont. He has to go.
To be clear, the article does not state that Trooper Brown was solely responsible for all three fatalities. The article clearly states that Brown “fired his weapon” in all three fatalities—along with up to 8 other troopers, depending on the case. Let’s not let emotion lead us astray from facts. And let’s be clear: our police are poorly and blatantly undertrained in this country. Our entire system of policing and incarceration in this country is savagely flawed and needs immediate, thoughtful, thorough attention.
“This is the third shooting officer brown has been involved in. A black cop has murdered two white vermonters and seriously wounded a third.
Yet there is nary a peep about this..
Why is this not being reported?
At the very least officer brown should NEVER be allowed to carry s weapon again- it’s only a matter of time before he kills again if he is allowed to continue to “serve” hot lead ventilating the public at will”
This was my comment about Officer Brown on January 18…This was entirely predictable… this is just too many shootings. Either Officer Brown is the unluckiest trooper ever or our policies need amending.. Certainly after the Montpelier shooting things should have changed. But the police investigate the police so nothing ever does. Except the amount of dead citizens that keep piling up
Oh and by the way- where is all the BLM protests?
A black police officer has killed three white men in less 6 months… thats got to be some kind of record
where is the outrage ? where is the media attention nationally ?
where are all the high school students asserting their outrage?
What does our “human rights commission” have to say about this? they get paid for to do such things…
I want investigations…Its what the “human rights commission” does right?
this seems like low hanging fruit- where are they? Gov Scott? Zimmerman? Bueller?
Sounds like this guy is a bit gun happy! There have been and are troopers who have never fired their guns, why is this guy shooting his three times in such a short time frame???
This is not a race issue so people should not treat it that way. It’s a law enforcement officer who has used his gun in a very short time period three times; his skin color has no bearing.
Again, many officers go a whole career without pulling their gun. His actions may indeed been all above board but this needs to be looked into.
12 shots, to protect a man from hurting himself…. only 3 out of the 12 hit him. If that was a test in school, where a passing grade was the usual between 70-100, these guys get a 25. Anyone reading this ever fail a test so bad, ever demonstrate such a complete lack of understanding as to get a 25 on a test? Bullets from a high power rifle no less, flying down the interstate 3500 feet per second, just waiting for my wife and kids to be coming home from the park or the store. While nobody’s little girl took a bullet through the chest while watching Finding Nemo in the back of the family minivan, this time, this is another shining example of how getting the police involved in anything these days makes the whole situation LESS SAFE.
A single, well placed shot through the shoulder of the arm he was holding his gun with, without erupting into a hail of apparently uncontrolled gunfire, would have; disabled him and neutralized the danger, left him alive so his children still had a father and not endangered everyone else in the area.
Why did a police officer stay on the phone with him for 20 minutes? Why wasn’t he talking with a trained crisis therapist?
Perhaps Trooper Brown should consider a different line of employment . . . like delivering pizzas.
Trooper Chris Brown has been with the VSP since 2012. He was with NINE other officers during one fatality mentioned. Then he was one of FIVE, and in the last was one of TWO officers who fired. I wonder why your outrage and asinine comments that he should be “delivering pizzas” don’t extend to the other officers involved? (Also interesting- nobody called the white officers involved in these shootings, “thugs”.)
In this case, the victim didn’t fire his gun, sure- but put yourself in the officer’s place: You’re on the interstate with an armed guy you know is distraught advancing toward you, refusing to put down his gun. It’s easy for you to believe from the cozy comfort of your laptop you’d know what to do. Until you’ve been out there working one of the toughest jobs there is, you don’t. So maybe ease off your arm-chair quarter-backing of a life or death situation. I feel for the family and for the officers involved. Looking at the previous incidents it’s easy to see the VSP has a training issue. I trust they’ll take care of it. And, for those of you trying to turn this into a race thing, man-oh-man. Shame on you.
Thea- I am not politicizing this- BLM has poiticized this issue. If they in fact do care about all lives and the goal is a reformative approach to law enforcement- then why are they so silent after these police shootings? Where is the outrage? where is the protests? where is our “human rights commission”?
and furthermore- officer brown never should have been in this situation- thats the whole point. at the very least he should have been on administrative leave after being a participent in so many recent fatal shootings. And let me be clear- I dont think officer Brown has committed any crime. I simply feel the the state police have let down the citizens of VT and also Officer Brown who never should have been assigned back on duty so quickly. I dont feel he was given an adequate amount of time to recover from such traumatic events in order to uphold the law. Nor do I feel any investigation into use of force was done in order to ensure these events did not reoccur in the same manner they repeadtly have lately. I understand the police have a stressful job and its a job that I would never personally want to do. However we are all in this together and we have to have the courage to speak up in the face of incidents which my have been handled incorrectly. As citizens of this state and America I feel its our duty to face the harsh realities of our civilization and try and amend it to the best of our ability.
My condolences to all of the parties involved in these tragic events.
Snow Creek, I wasn’t only addressing your comments, but, since you answered, here’s what you originally said:
I copied and pasted, so it’s accurate:
“At the very least officer brown should NEVER be allowed to carry s weapon again- it’s only a matter of time before he kills again if he is allowed to continue to “serve” hot lead ventilating the public at will”.
Your original post placed the blame on Officer Brown, not training. It painted this young Trooper a reckless killer. I’m glad you’ve had time to reconsider.
Thea
I never said training- I said police policies need amending. Personally I think it was beyond obvious that officer brown should not have been allowed to continue carrying a firearm. He never should have been allowed to continue being on duty. Its up to the state police to ensure their officers are both mentally and physically fit to uphold the law. After being a participent in so many shootings- I dont feel he was up to those standards any more.
I said that he would wind up killing another vermonter If he was allowed to carry a gun again and shoot at will- and I was absolutely correct. Had the police acted and removed him from active duty as they should have its very likely that the tragic events that unfolded on I 89 never would have occurred. While I dont think Officer Brown is a reckless killer- I dont feel he should ever be allowed to serve the public again upholding the law- as I feel he will only wind up serving the public hot lead. Again….
He had already killed two vermonters in four months- do you seriously think that was not some form of red flag? Some people simply do not have the constitution for certain jobs. And as I said earlier- either officer Brown is the unluckiest trooper ever or our policies need amending.
It sickens me that people try to act like there is no problem with policing in the US when US police shoot over 1000 people every year. …Or they try to say that awareness of this problem is “politicizing”.
There are too many dead bodies. This needs to stop as does the rush to justify police shootings.
Would the police shoot a man who was standing on the railing of a bridge threatening to jump? Maybe I should ask would it be justified?