Burlington residents flooded police with phone calls in recent weeks to report a man was bicycling with a rifle slung over his shoulder. Officers who tried to talk to him found him to be “incoherent,” and he insisted that laws do not apply to him, according to court documents.
“A man with mental health issues riding around the city on a bike with an unconcealed rifle and ammunition makes people nervous, because it should,” Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said.
For weeks, Burlington police say, they were forced to leave Malcolm Tanner, 52, alone, because he did not seem to be breaking any laws. Wednesday, with the help of federal authorities, he was finally arrested.
Police had repeatedly approached Tanner, who was living in a homeless encampment in woods in the Old North End but does not appear to have any significant local ties.
“During these interactions with the defendant, his demeanor and responses indicated an inability to maintain a consistent stream of thought,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ophardt wrote in a filing in U.S. District Court in Burlington. “In addition, Tanner made multiple incoherent statements indicating potential irrational fears of persecution, and voiced a belief that federal laws do not apply to him.”
Burlington resident Ralph Grenon had made several similar comments to police officers. He eventually engaged in a standoff that ended with an officer shooting him to death when he lunged at police with two large knives.
But there was nothing police could immediately do with Tanner, del Pozo said.
Any citizen is legally allowed to carry a firearm, either openly or concealed, in Vermont. And Tanner hadn’t threatened anyone or committed any crimes, as far as police knew. The records available to Burlington police showed he did not have any felony convictions in Vermont, del Pozo said.
Police didn’t try to get Tanner evaluated for mental health problems, thinking that would be fruitless, del Pozo said. State law requires that someone be deemed an imminent danger to themselves or others to be treated against their will. And that standard, experts say, is generally a very high bar to clear.
City residents kept calling police. Dan Barnes shot a photo of a man with a rifle biking. It was circulated widely on social media, and Seven Days published it as a Tweet of the Week on May 25. Del Pozo confirmed Thursday that the man in the photo is Tanner.
Some people accused police of racial bias, del Pozo said, arguing that if a black man had been seen around the city with a rifle, police would have taken more decisive action. Tanner is white.
“I found that very aggravating. The law is the law and we were trying, ” del Pozo said. “This had nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with Vermont’s gun laws and mental health regulations. We had to tell people, ‘On its face, this is legal conduct, but we’re looking into it.’ People were very frustrated by calling police about a man with a gun and having a dispatcher say, ‘Until we know more, there’s nothing we can do.'”
Burlington police eventually turned to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which handles federal firearms crimes. ATF agents learned that Tanner had felony convictions for theft and drug dealing in New Hampshire. Federal prosecutors filed a charge accusing Tanner of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Police arrested Tanner on Wednesday morning near his encampment. He surrendered peacefully. Tanner was being held in jail without bail pending a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court.
If not for his previous convictions, Tanner could still be riding around the city with a weapon at the ready. When federal agents inspected Tanner’s rifle — which they described as a .22-caliber semiautomatic — they found its magazine held seven rounds.
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The cyclist in the photo is not using a hand signal to indicate his left turn, and he does not have a red reflector on the rear of his bicycle. Either of those infractions would have been enough for the BPD to pull him over.
Isn’t it the height of hypocrisy that United States Attorney Eric Miller is prosecuting a man who needs mental health care while he overlooks that hundreds of patients at the Brattleboro Retreat were literally robbed in broad daylight by the historic hospitals failure to return patient credit balances for a decade? So law enforcement can imprison those with mental health but not those who steal from the same population? Vermont, we can thank Senator Patrick Leahy for this as Leahy has now nominated two United States Attorney’s who have so far refused to prosecute those at the historic hospital. It’s glaringly apparent that Mr. Tanner doesn’t have the mental capacity to understand that he was violating the law as a convicted felon. Very sad as this man will spend years in prison with limited access to the mental health care he so desperately needs. So much for criminal justice reform which Leahy champions falsely.
As I reached for a package of meat in the Brattleboro Hannaford’s, I noticed the man next to me had a shoulder holster with (what looked to be) a 9mm handgun. HOW am I supposed to know he’s a good guy? Or that he’s not going to shoot up the place?? The whole culture of having to carry, just because you can is frightening. I have friends who are avid hunters, and enjoy sport-shooting; they would never consider bringing their guns into a store, or walking down the street with them. For those of us who are the survivors of gun violence, and/or deal with PtSD, this is scary.
The firearm was already in this man’s possession and many of you are harping about how background checks could have stopped this? Are you serious right now? Get a clue. If you actually look at this logically what you see is that BPD could have called the BATFE at any given time after their first contact with the man. They could have known right then and there that he was a felon which is otherwise known as a prohibited person. The only dilemma I see is the amount of time it took to get a clue and call the BATFE.
FreedomToThink, I agree that no one has said this person was mentally ill. just that he was incoherent each time the police questioned him. What might have been okay 50 years ago to have children take a firearm to school and then shoot a squirrel or a rabbit on the way home, is not accepted today, as I am sure you are aware of. No firearms in school or on the school property. We are living in a different world than we were 50 years ago. Innocent people are now getting killed by guns every day. It used to be that those who used guns were respective of them. Yes, that is still true today in most cases, but in more, they are now used as a weapon against other people. While VT might have the highest ratio of gun ownership per capital, and the least amount of killings per capital compared to other states, the fact remains that guns kill and when people see someone walking down a street, or on a bike with a gun, there IS reason to be concerned. I am thankful that our police in this state are doing their jobs by investigating people and taking the proper steps to make sure we are all safe. This person was a convicted felon, in case you didn’t read that part. He had no business having that rifle. I suppose if 20 terrorists walked down Church Street with their weapons unconcealed, you would not expect the police to take action. This is a big problem now with our society. Damn if you do, damn if you don’t.