Updated on September 23, 2025.
A prolonged standoff at a Riverside Avenue apartment complex ended on Sunday night with a Burlington police officer shooting and wounding a man, according to Vermont State Police, which is investigating the incident.
The man, 32-year-old Aaron Loucks, is being treated at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Brady McGee, the officer who shot him, is on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure after a shooting.
The incident began around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, when Burlington police responded to a “disturbance” on Riverside Avenue involving a “person in crisis.” Officers attempted to take Loucks into custody, but he barricaded himself in his apartment.
A lengthy standoff ensued. The department deployed its Emergency Response Unit, which is used to try and de-escalate dangerous situations, including those involving barricaded people. When Loucks eventually exited the apartment on Sunday evening, officers attempted to use “non-deadly force measures” but were unsuccessful, according to state police. McGee then fired his patrol rifle, striking Loucks, police said.
Loucks had been wielding a knife and threatening to kill officers and another person, according to the Burlington Police Officers’ Association, which issued a statement on Monday evening.
“We at the BPOA are very proud of how our officers handled this extremely volatile, dynamic and dangerous situation resulting in no injury to third party civilians or officers,” the statement said.
McGee started at Burlington Police Department in June 2018, then left for a short stint with a Connecticut department before returning to the Queen City in November 2022.
Loucks is well known to police and has dealt with mental health challenges and substance abuse. He previously served jail time for federal charges of possessing a firearm while being a known user of drugs. The charges stemmed from an incident in December 2020, when Loucks used a hammer to smash the windows of a Church Street storefront. Police later found him with a gun, which he reportedly bought as part of a plan to disrupt the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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