 All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm going to share a few remarks about last night's incidents and then we will hear from Chief Mirad, or from South Burlington, or Deputy Chief Mirad Burlington, and the ATF resident charge out. Last night we experienced two more alarming and tragic homicides in this spike of gun violence that we've been experiencing through the past two years, especially in 2020. I want to thank the Burlington Detective Unit, our partner agencies, and brave officers who were on the scene last night who apprehended Mr. Descent and ensured that there will be immediate accountability for these terrible acts of violence. This spike in gun violence has been the city's top public safety priority since the spring, and it will remain so until we see these shootings at it. The BPD Detective Unit remains well staffed and focused on making good on our pledge to do everything we can to hold perpetrators of gun violence in Burlington accountable. On Thursday, the Chief announced four arrests for recent incidents, including a recent assault and robbery committed at gunpoint. The rest of now the shooters in eight of the 13 shootings this year that have resulted in injury or death, and we are closing in on further announcements. Despite all the steps that we've taken to expand our public safety resources in the downtown since the spring, it's clear that we need to do more until the current climate improves. Thank you Chief Mirad to explore all possible avenues for accomplishing this despite our current severe workforce constraints. We plan to have further news on this to share soon. I'll close by saying this. I know that these events have shaken our community. We are not used to this level of violence in Vermont, and we should never get used to it. Our broad societal forces driving violent crime nationwide, our city is not immune to those, and we cannot promise that these homicides the last violent crimes that will happen here. I do promise that we will continue to relentlessly deploy new resources, seek new partnerships and pursue new strategies until we restore the level of public safety and low rate of violent crime that Burlington's have long known. I would like to ask Chief Mirad to come forward and give some details on the events last night. Thank you sir. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. The mayor is correct this this these incidents do send a shock through our city, but they've also sent shocks through two families. We have two people who are dead. And I do want to to recognize that to acknowledge that that there are people today feeling loss from what is in our society and rightly so the ultimate crime, taking another person's life in a criminal manner. I want to acknowledge a lot of partners not just those who are here and who will speak to things that are in their bailiwick, including ATF and South Burlington, but UVM deployed officers to us last night other members of the Chittenden County gun violence Task Force deployed members to us last night. This was a an all hands on deck effort across two different municipalities and two pretty intense crimes. Those crimes began thus at about 815 hours last night at 2015 hours Burlington police dispatchers received calls about gunfire in an apartment at 185 Pine Street and apartment complex belonging to the Burlington Housing Authority. She ignore Osmond age 40 was found unresponsive and subsequently declared dead at the scene. Mr. Osmond was previously a victim in a shooting that took place in City Hall Park on May 23 of this year. He was struck in the head in that incident and we believe returned fire and self defense. We have not yet identified the other party in that incident, and we do not believe that that incident was related to this one, other than the fact that Mr. Osmond was involved in both. Mr. Osmond was arrested for aggravated assault in December of last year for threatening another man with machete the status of that case is uncertain. And members of the Chittenden County gun violence Task Force responded to the scene on Pine Street and began to identify and interview witnesses. They began to collect evidence and search for a suspect. Initial reports suggested that the suspect in this incident may have been involved in the gunfire incident that took place in City Hall Park on September 28. At approximately 2307 hours, South Burlington Police Department dispatchers received calls about gunfire at the Swiss Host Motel and Village on Williston Road in South Burlington. Responding officers there entered in the apartment and found Brian K Billings 37 unresponsive. He was subsequently declared dead at the scene. A witness positively identified Denroy Dassen 52 as the alleged killer. We issued a beyond lookout or BOL for Mr. Dassen and the gold SUV that he was reported to be driving at 2334. The suspect's vehicle slowly drove past the Pine Street crime scene, and was observed and reported by an officer who's on scene security at that scene. She called it in and the officer in charge Lieutenant Mike Henry's responded to the area to canvas. During that canvas he observed the suspect yelling at a female in the vicinity of the Simons on south when you ski, and when the suspect drove away, Henry followed at a distance. His plan was to initiate a controlled stop, and he asked for additional resources to join him. He did not stop the vehicle at 2341. However, while driving east on College Street the suspect noticed Lieutenant Henry following him. The suspect stopped his vehicle, exited with his hands up and empty. At this point Lieutenant Henry illuminated his blue lights and he stopped and exited his vehicle as well. He ordered Mr. Dissent to get to the ground at gunpoint, and Mr. Dissent shouted I'm not getting on the ground you'll have to shoot me, as well as a number of people. He reentered his vehicle and drove away. At this point, an on duty sergeant responding to Lieutenant Henry's call for assistance encountered Mr. Dissent's vehicle and initiated a short pursuit it lasted approximately 63 seconds, during which the suspect attained high rates of speed in the city over 60 miles an hour, made several turns on St. Paul on main on battery and then ultimately on King and into Perkins pier and the waterfront. The suspect exited his vehicle which was apparently left in drive and it crashed at a low speed into a low wall at approximately 2343 hours terminating the pursuit. The suspect fled into the darkness in the vicinity of the spot on the dock restaurant. Multiple additional units including members of the Chittenden County gun violence Task Force arrived on scene. They established a perimeter. They prepared to conduct a tactical search and they called for the emergency response vehicle to be brought to the scene. One officer could be dispatched to retrieve that vehicle here at One North Avenue officers noticed movement in the vicinity, and Mr. Dissent appeared at approximately 2356 hours. He demanded that officer shoot him, and he did not comply with commands. He shouted profanities of the officers instead. One officer deployed a conducted electrical weapon or CW which is more commonly known as a taser. There was no effect to that deployment. One officer failed another officer used a less lethal impact condition or LL. I am specifically a shotgun that is designed to fire beanbag rounds. The suspect was struck twice, and then at that point complied and lay on the ground, and was taken into custody at approximately 2357 hours. There was a use of force against a person of color, according to our executive order of September 2020 we reported that to the mayor, as we do all uses of force against people of color and we will report it to the public as we do all uses of force by members of the police department every single one. Mr. Dissent was held without bail and was transported to the Northwest State Correctional Facility early this morning, and he was arraigned earlier today. He has been held in his, he will continue to be held until another hearing. This was the 25th gunfire incident for 2022. This was the 13th shooting, which a person was struck by gunfire, and this is the fourth murder in our city. And I will open it up to questions for myself or for any of the people who are here. Here from Schoenberg. Of course. Mike, what would you like to hear from Schoenberg, whatever you want to tell us about this murder. Yeah, the homicide was outlined in the details that we're willing to share at this point by chief here at our investigation is still ongoing. The Northwest State Police is on scene with their crime scene technicians. And once we have everything, all the forensics accounted for all the witness statements accounted for, and what amounts to copious amounts of ambient video in the area will be moving forward to charges with this to the county state attorney's office. Is there any rush on charges because he's being held without bail? There is no rush. I understand that his kids may have seen him get shot. I think that's part of the investigation. I can't say the family was home at the time. The family was home at the time of this incident. Whether or not the actual incident took place at the threshold or in front of the unit. That's all part of the investigation. When was the last time I didn't stop early 10. 2018 and that will, and that will blow up. The relationship between victim, the suspect. That is all to be determined. And we're still in the earliest stages of this investigation. I mean, these incidents happened less than 24 hours ago. I think there's been a remarkable amount of work done in order to make this apprehension. As Chief Burke just told you with regard to the incident in South Burlington that is in its earliest stages. Ours is as well, although an affidavit has been filed sufficient to have the suspect held. I think that's one of the relationships with the motives. You know, I've said it a couple of times that some of these incident some of these events recently. Those are very important to us they're certainly important for building a case they're certainly important for presenting a case in court because they resonate with people. But when it comes down to it motive is a secondary factor to whether or not somebody did what they did. And I do believe that we have sufficient evidence here to be able to put forth a strong case that the suspect did what he did. That's correct. You already in action investigation for that recent shooting. No, we had executed search warrant at a home associated with him, in order to recover evidence that we believe was associated with that crime. It was a residence in South Burlington. It was a residence in South Burlington. What would be the address search warrant. I don't know I'd have to find that exact address for you. I'm sorry it's only been charged with the time street homicide. Is that correct. That is, that's what's in the affidavit of charge. Where do you categorize us when it comes to the shooting incidents that have happened to the city. There's been random attacks, there's been targeted attacks there's been attacks about the young people, domestic violence. Where does this sort of fall in this and what for the city as well. I'm not really working on that. There are some indications that the gunfire on in City Hall Park may have been may have been something to do with with money. We don't know that that's a case here. We are looking to determine what this is or was not. And you haven't said the word drugs. So that's not correct. So a lot of not a lot have been drug related, I think that the drug related phenomenon has been a relatively recent one. We certainly know that people who are involved in gunfire also often are involved in drugs. It's just a nexus. But what we don't see is the fact that the drugs or the transaction of drugs or the trafficking of drugs drives the violence in fact the violence seems to be driven more by interpersonal relationships and many of our friends or merely beefs or merely, frankly, ego and people kind of bumping up against each other, like brownie in motion with molecules just sort of agitating one another in public spaces. That has been up until recently the pattern of most of our gunfire incident. The incident in City Hall Park that was a murder is certainly an exception to that we do believe that to be narcotics related. But this most recent incident, as I said, it may have a monetary relationship there was into their indications that it may have been over money is that drug money we don't know that. And this murder, both of these murders last night, we do not know what those are. So really, the number that have been directly result over the past two and a half years as we've seen gunfire increased in Burlington, and in the surrounding particularly in the Queen City drugs has not been a major driver of those, although it has been an ancillary part of participants lives. I'm trying to keep this straight but the target of the gunfire incident City Hall Park last week. Is that targeted all related to shooting. We do not believe so. So this would be, if it's very on the suspect in that case as well this is the case of shooting at three people. That would be believed to have done so yes. Chief and all of these 25 instances. Is it over characterization that these are folks who are fairly recent residents of the area. Yes, I believe that to be an over I believe that to be a mischaracterization I believe the majority of these involved people who are people from Burlington, who have lived their lives in Burlington who have been in many instances in Burlington since birth or since very young ages. The people involved in this are folks with whom we've had, for the most part interactions over a great number of years. The exception being our shooter shooter are my knowledge of his history goes back about a year plus with regard to involvement in our valve core system. Does that mean he wasn't here earlier than that I don't have an answer to that right now. But in so far as having interactions with police it only goes back a year plus. There are a few of other people involved in this, both as witnesses as as victims. There are many people who are and have been long term residents of Burlington. But like actually Richard to your looking for for that property. The other day was at the apartment at some point is still missing. She has not yet been apprehended. She was reported to have been in that apartment at the time of the shooting or immediately prior. She was not on scene when officers arrived. To what end is ETF involved in this is it the ballistics evidence or Absolutely. Good afternoon, Alex Schmidt. I'm the resident agent in charge of the Bureau of alcohol tobacco farms and explosives field office here in Burlington, Vermont. I'm just spearheading as you know, with the Burlington Police Department the Chittin County gun violence Task Force. Last night we activated that task force and want to certainly thank our partners who came out from the Milton Police Department for modification wildlife, Vermont State Police narcotics and investigation unit was out last night for a total of approximately 10 additional You have to remember, you know, these two departments they're holding, they're holding two homicide scenes their resource constraint I would presume on a Sunday night. Not a lot of not a lot of officers out there so you know Chittin County gun violence Task Force, you were notified by Burlington Police Department very quickly that there was a presumed homicide in Burlington notifications went out to those partners and we had, you know within an hour so there was a lot to bear an additional almost 10 resources that I'd say we're extremely helpful in in assessing what we had we responded up to South Burlington to the scene up there. We responded back down to be seen in Burlington. I was there personally when he was taken into custody down outside spot on the dock restaurant. The officers and agents that were involved in that phenomenal job showed incredible restraint taking him into custody and bringing about a safe resolution to this so you know we, we, when we showed up there there weren't a ton of there were several Burlington officers sort of holding what they had down there. We showed up with the additional resources to help and sort of bring about a safe resolution to this but Burlington officers who are involved in an incredible job last night. So, you know, that's sort of the reactive part of this we're obviously addressed the pro you know the proactive part. We're certainly going to work with them on the ballistics evidence matching that. And we, as we did, you know in the trust release we have a knife machine coming to our office, which is actually slated to arrive this week and should be up and running in short order which is going to help us make incredibly quick links to some of these gunfire scenes so that is sort of some of the resources that we're bringing to bear both with the Chippewa County gun violence task force and over her office. What does it say about the defendant, the return to the scene of the crime. I mean that's always one of those jobs that they always talk about this. And the suspect always returns to the scene of the crime look like this was one of those cases. I think if you've been in law enforcement for any length of time like we all have up here you see it all and, you know, as far as investigation part of that I'm not going to comment for a moment. Do you know if the victim was living in the hotel or just staying there, vacation or what? No, the victim in his family lived at the hotel. This is for anyone. I mean, what is your message to people in Burlington who are feeling really unsafe in the area greater Chippewa County feeling really unsafe today. What do they need to know moving forward? These are scary incidents. And I know that the community feels unrest because of this what I can say is that Mr. Descent will not be doing anything to anyone for quite some time. And that is a function of the work that's done by the folks who are part of this world. We need the public's help in that public safety is a shared responsibility. If people are frightened, and I know they are, we need to work with them together we need to know what is happening we need assistance and some of these things and I think that we also need support. I want to note something that that agent Smith noted as well which is the restraint that was shown in this incident. Lieutenant Mike Henry exhibited remarkable constraint restraint and yet it is not abnormal among our officers. So that that car stop where the suspect came out of the vehicle towards him. Yes, hands up yes hands empty but then at one point goes back to the car to reach inside that car is an incredibly fraught moment. It is the kind of moment that in many other places results in something that is very different than what we had last night. And that's not to say that we might not have something like that is circumstances were just a little bit different. In this instance, the way it was handled by Lieutenant Henry is phenomenal way was how it handled at the waterfront. When this person comes out of the dark again no knowledge of whether or not he's armed at that point has just murdered two people allegedly comes out is completely unnerved and we have a safe resolution is one that frankly runs counter to things that I think are sometimes said about about the agency in the way in which we work. And that is why I make every single use of force public so that the public can ascertain for itself how we function these matters and how we perform in these kinds of situations. We've got a redaction specialist who is currently in background and hopeful to have that position hired so we can start releasing video as we've agreed to do. But and dispel the notion that there is something in our use of force that suggests that we see some people in our community differently than we see other people. That's an assertion that has been made and I do not believe it at all. I take great great objection to it. I think we have to deal with with how people feel. I think that what we need to recognize is that things have changed. And for us to get back to where we were is going to be a shared effort. The city council has given us the tools. The mayor worked incredibly hard to get those tools, tools around budget tools around contract. And we have to rebuild. And we are doing so in a really complicated time. You know, there are there are neighborhoods in Florida that are gone, and maybe they are insured and maybe they have the tools to rebuild they have maybe they were insured for more than the value of the home they had on that land. But good luck trying to find people who have the equipment and people who have the time the contractors necessary to rebuild that's going to be a long process for those places. It's no different here. This department got walloped in a way that made it a little different than it had been in the past. We want to rebuild we've got the tools to do that we want to do so for our neighbors for the people we serve. That's why we get up and do what we do every single day. And so to folks in the community. I nearly say that that we are out there working. We did a press release on Friday about a number of cases that had strong resolutions. They were involved within within 15 hours, actually less within four hours from the actual crimes. It's got a lot more to go. This is nowhere near over for us. We have huge amounts of investigatory work that still need to be done detectives are going to be working on this case and all those others that have resolutions enough for me to make a press release about them or say we apprehended this one. That is not that is maybe 50% of the way done. We are working in prosecutorial partners are detectives continue to work on these things. We are really working on every single cylinder. We are basically been at redline for a while, and we're doing it because we want this community to be everything that we wanted to be and that our neighbors wanted to be too. That is not a video that falls within the scope of our agreement for release. That would be video that would be available only after this case is resolved. I think it is by the definition I use yes it absolutely is. Is there something you're getting at? I thought one of the earlier press conferences you tried to define two different kinds of shootings in Burlington. And like the shooting involved in from the police officer. I don't think that's included in that number. That's not a criminal shooting. That's not a criminal shooting. Absolutely not. We'll wait for a determination, but I have seen that shooting. I've looked at it strongly. I am eager to be able to put forward my belief about that shooting. My understanding after reviewing more than 500 officer involved shootings at the NYPD being someone I spent years in working on officer involved shootings. I'm eager to talk about that shooting. I'm eager to wait for it to be done at the stages it was. I believe that the Vermont State Police have finished with it. I believe it is in the hands of prosecutors. It is not a criminal shooting. It doesn't get counted. Our definition is very clear criminal shootings, probable cause that a discharge occurred reasonable suspicion that it was criminal. Well, gunfire that's gunfire shooting is when a person struck, but that's the I don't think that's what you're going to just think of doing that fire shoot. Yeah. And that's what I was asking about. No, no, you're asking me to call something criminal that I don't believe. The definition definition is always been, is it a criminal act. So shooting criminal action. No. Criminal acts. It's the crime is part of it. Anybody else. Yes. I believe that there is money involved in the shooting like their money was a motive. Not in the shooting. We believe that money might have been involved in the gunfire incident that took place in City Hall Park. Is it a common motive amongst the 25 shootings that happened this year. No, I would say the majority of those were not involved with money. As I said before, I think that the majority of those actually had to do with interpersonal relationships. The victim of the fight. My street was also involved with earlier City Hall Park. Yes, the victim at Pine Street was the victim in a shooting in May, in which he was struck and another person fired at him. And has there been an arrest. No, we have not yet identified the other party in that we've got leads. It's an open investigation. But we did not identify the other party. I don't know whether or not he was struck. There was some indication that he might have been but then it was never confirmed. We don't believe that individuals from Burlington. We believe that individuals is somewhere else in New England. What do you know about the defendants history. You said he, I think he'd be a year or so. What do you know about three? I had nothing about him pre Burlington. No, I don't. They may have they may know I don't. I don't know if you know if he's a convicted felon. I don't know off the top of my head. How many police interactions has he had during his time of Burlington. I believe they're currently 14 and three of those are from last night. And about 185 Pine Street is that a place that police have responded to frequently in the past. There were two gunfire incidents earlier this year that did not result a result in anybody being struck. They are incidents that we have really zero solvability factors for but they happen to be vicinity of that apartment building on time between King and maple both of them they were early morning incidents. I can't remember exactly when I want to say probably April or March. Those both occurred. There was a shooting in that where a person struck and injured in that complex in, I think, either October or November of 2020. But there will be press releases available for that. And yes, there are, you know, we do respond to that location at times. What exactly does the department expect the public to do in terms of working with them to combat all of this. I mean, we need the public to be eyes and ears on these things we want the public to note when things are happening. We do have a tip line for narcotics transactions for the extent that some of these are, we fear that they may be increasingly involved with narcotics. We do have obviously reporting mechanisms for other kinds of crime. We are dependent on the public to be eyes and ears and be participatory in everyone's public safety. You get a second spellings. Yes, I can. The spellings I have are for the victim on Pine Street, she ignore, which is capital S, H, E, I, K, H, N, O, O, R. And the last name is Osmond capital O, S, M, A, N, H 40. The other victim in South Burlington is Brian K Billings, first name Brian capital B, R, I, A, N, K, don't know what that stands for, and then Billings last name capital B, I, L, L, I, N, G, S, H 37. One of the things you've mentioned, some of these earlier perspectives is that, you know, large proportion of the gunfire incidents in the city were within a small group of recurring individuals. I'm wondering if you're starting to see that circle expand here. Unfortunately, yes. Unfortunately, yes, I am. I think that our, you know, I've said before that somewhere in the order of 50% of our gunfire was located within a relatively small group of folks. That number is changing now simply because the last several incidents have not been involved, not involved that group. And a component of that frankly is some really great arrest work that's been made. We've arrested several of the people who were most most prone to actual violence in that group. And their removal from the board as it were has decreased gun violence in that group. However, since then we've had the murder in City Hall Park we've had the shooting the gunfire incident City Hall Park that we believe was potentially associated with Mr. We've had obviously this murder now. And so, those have changed the balance a little bit we had a, you know, an incident of reckless endangerment with two young women down at Perkins pier. But I do believe that the, the arrest of Avaka Hulaway. That we believe him to have been associated with several of these incidents. And we're still working to determine whether or not there are others. We have unsolved cases that are in open investigation and we'll see where those take us with regard to, whether they were committed by someone you know or someone new or not any indication it's any of this is getting away. Again, in this particular incident, no, I do not believe that to be the case with these particular incidents. Can you address the fact that it looks like you started on focusing on this guy, even at much as Wednesday night, I put the shooting. I mean, did that give you sort of a leg up on this case because guys were the task force were working on him for that shooting and that it just sort of evolved into this, and they could pick up a lot from what they already know. Sure. That's the whole point of the task force right is that we want we want this core group of folks to, you know, no, no sort of the problem set if you will what we're dealing with and that's not to say that, you know, things aren't going to appear from outside of that core group right which is what the chiefs just sort of commented on but it certainly helps that, you know, we have folks that have already been working on this and so when they respond to this. incident on Sunday night, you know, we sort of I say we absolutely have a leg up on some of the stuff which is sort of one of the core principles of the task force is to have a, you know, a set of people that are working on these incidents right and we talk about Burlington a lot but this particular one last night span both Burlington and South Burlington and it's, you know, it's not going to stay contained just solely for Burlington so having these folks that know how to work these and have the expertise is really what what we want the task force to be all about. All right, well thank you very much for coming. You appreciate it and I will, there are other things will try to get that information for you.