Burlington’s 23rd gunfire incident of the year occurred over the holiday weekend shortly after midnight on Sunday morning — it was the city’s third homicide, right in City Hall Park.
A targeted shooting
“The manner of this homicide was gunfire,” a Burlington Police Department statement released Sunday reported. “It currently appears that the suspect directly and specifically targeted the victim. The victim was struck in the head.
“This is the 23rd gunfire incident that the Burlington Police Department has recorded in 2022, the 12th incident in which a bullet struck a person, and the third homicide.”
Later in the day the victim was announced to be Bryan C. Rogers II, 32, of Philadelphia.
State police and local university police contributed their services to help the Burlington Police secure the scene.
RIGHT OUTSIDE THEIR DOOR: The city of Burlington has had another shooting, this one right near City Hall, where policies are made that affect the ability of police to protect residents.
“The Burlington Police Department received extraordinary assistance with regard to the initial response from troopers of the Vermont State Police, and with regard to scene control from officers of the University of Vermont Police Department and South Burlington Police Department. The investigation into this murder is in its earliest stages and all information is preliminary,” a BPD press release states.
On Wednesday Police arrested Christopher Crawford, 42, of New Jersey in connection with the murder. Another man, Joseph Craig, 59, of St. Albans, also was arrested and has been charged with being an accessory to the crime.
Locals taking action
As gun crime continues to skyrocket in the Queen City, there are signs that local residents are getting fed up — and are calling for a strong police response. An organization called Keep Vermont Safe is hosting a public workshop 6-8 p.m. Friday at Burlington City Hall to address violent crime.
The event will have a panel of speakers that includes Michael Hall, executive director of the Vermont Police Coalition; Brady Toensing, former senior counsel with the United States Department of Justice; and Christina Nolan, former United States Attorney for the District of Vermont. Ericka Redic, a Burlington resident and Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. House, will be moderating the panel.
“Since voting to defund the police in 2020, Burlington, Vermont has seen an increase in burglaries, vehicle thefts, coordinated retail theft groups, increased drug crimes and gun fire incidents in the city,” a press release for the event states.
Burlington Police cannot respond to all calls
Cities nationwide are struggling with rising crime rates following the Democrat-led “defund the police” movement. Acting Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad has pinned to the top of his Twitter feed a comment he made a year ago: namely, that the staffing shortage means local police may not be able to keep the city safe.
“The reason police exist is to keep people safe by preventing and responding to crime and disorder with and for our neighbors,” Murad said. “But the disorder part may have to take a back seat when staffing is low and incident volume is high.”https://t.co/b6P6VjCNmz
— Jon Murad (@voxcustodes) May 24, 2021
Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.
Notice how cities run by progressives tend to attrack the worst in humanity? Liberal cities throughout the country with strict firearms restriction have the highest homicide and crime rates. I suspect that the word in out that Burlington is a criminal sanctuary city. Crawford, the guy just arrested for murdering a man with an illegal gun has 8 felonies and was wanted on an arrest warrant from New Jersey. Eight felonies and he’s here walking the streets at night carrying an illegal gun, why is he not in jail. Instead of driving everyone nuts with this fake climate change, Vermont needs to address is crime change. All the money that’s wasted on “healing the Planet” needs to be redirected to stop the drugs, crime and mental health problems. We need jails to put these people away. A guy with 8 felonies is beyond repair. Until Vermonters realize that all this has been caused by progressive politicians and out of state flatlander carpetbaggers in our legislature nothing will change. All of this can be layed at the feet of voters who have destroyed Vermont by voting for insane policies.
It all starts at the southern border. Crickets from the three stooges.
Ahhhaaa, encouraged diversity with progressive overlords has made burnie town such a wonderful place,,, hasn’t it? Increased police isn’t the whole fix, you have to fit the persons to the crime not use color to determine if they get a pass
due to profiling…
The U.S. having uncontrolled, illegal, entry, via the open southern border, of all sorts of unvetted people, from all over the world, by the millions, each year, will certainly cause social fear, demographic unrest, tensions, and epidemics of violence.
The Biden administration having official policies to encourage/facilitate/reward such entries could be viewed as a form of malfeasance and treason.
In Chicago, about 25 to 50 people get killed by disturbed people using guns and other means every day, plus many more are violently attacked and robbed, on a hit and run basis, some of it on videos, during all hours of the day.
So basically we have a bunch of leftists who were(are) convinced that somehow if we decreased the police presence there will be fewer BIPOCS arrested and sent to jail. That’s pretty much been their intent. They failed to realize however that this wouldn’t decrease crime, let alone serious crime such as shootings and homicide. So this is what we get; an uptick in BIPOC and drug/gang related shootings and fewer cops to deal with it. How’s that working out for you BTV?
All this goes on right next door to NH, voted again number one safest state in the country.
https://granitegrok.com/blog/2022/09/2022-new-hampshire-is-still-the-safest-state-in-the-nation
I suppose if I tell you why this is, it will hurt lots of feelings..
And therein lies the problems.
Ya know Vermonters, you might want to rethink being known all the way to El Salvador as a “Sanctuary State”.
And legalizing prostitution sure ain’t gonna help either.
Perhaps it’s time to stop empowering the psychotic..
Laura, the psychotics are in charge. They want more people just like themselves.
Maybe the slogan is part of the denial problem? “Keep Vermont Safe”? How about: Make Vermont Safe Again? And those Kesha Ram and Phil Baruth anti-Second Amendment types who blame the “availability of guns” also need to come to the realization that Burlington and Vermont dont have a gun problem, we have a thug problem. There are more guns than people in the US. Fortunately only a small percentage of the population are thugs and with the proper political will, the criminal justice system has typically in the past done a fair job of containing the bad elements of society. The combination of the George Floyd era hating on the police and the general spread of marxist thinking in the court system has brought this upon us and a majority of the voters have rubber stamped it. The Burlington City Council for instance has blood dripping from it’s hands.
I personally like the motto “Make Vermont Conservative Again” or “Return to the 60’s” (and close the borders)….
Less cops will help
How?
what percentage of these firearm incidents in Burlington involve minorities?
Give police the ability to “stop and frisk”…Guilani halted much crime in NYC by doing so…… watch crime go down, down in BTV too. The latest in downtown BTV seem to be all out of staters..I assume drug related, perhaps minorities…..So what are they doing walking around downtown armed for war? Right across from BTV CITY HALL? What does that tell you? The criminal drug thugs aren’t scared of anyone. But if a policy of “Stop and Frisk” is enacted …even these low IQ drug thugs will figure it out (eventually)….not to be “Armed to the “Teeth in BTV… and it thus a safer place for all. But fat chance of that! Can you guess why 🙂
Sorry – not giving up my rights so idiots in B-ton can have the illusion of safety. You’d better have reasonable, articulable suspicion of a crime having been committed, being committed or about to be committed before even getting an ID. Try going there and watch how taxes increase to cover the lawsuits.
Sorry Frank, you’re wrong, or…. wrong ….AND typical liberal. Stop and Frisk has been upheld by the SUPREME COURT…you have no clue what you’re talking about (like most Libs)…. It may be a fine line….but BTV police ALREADY KNOW who bad guys are. Stop and Frisk will scare the pants of them, from walking freely over BTV- ready for war:
Gotcha 🙂
“These were essentially the facts in Terry v. Ohio, the precedent-setting 1968 Supreme Court case about stop and frisk. The justices held that a police officer who’s investigating suspicious behavior may lawfully pat down the outer clothing of someone reasonably believed to be armed and dangerous (LIKE BTV DRUG DEALERS !!!!!!!), in an attempt to discover weapons that might be used to assault the officer.
The Court concluded that stop and frisk doesn’t violate the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Because of the landmark decision’s name, another common term for a stop and frisk is a “Terry frisk” or “Terry search.”
However, the police aren’t allowed to target people willy-nilly. While they don’t need probable cause to stop you, they must have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Also, they can’t frisk you unless they reasonably believe that you may be armed and dangerous.” (BTV DRUG DEALERS ARE ARMED AND DANGEROUS !!!)
Do you “Capiche ” the law now Frank? It is SUPREME COURT LAW….so what you say about lawsuits in BTV because of…is bullsh****t. Ya’ CAN’T BUCK a SUPREME COURT RULING!
Maybe it’s not the frisking but instead the police asking to see an ID that bothers him since the democrats have declared that to be racist…
In order for Stop and Frisk to work, the police have to profile the person. Do you realize how triggered the city council would be over that. Everything in Vermont is racist now because of the governor hiring a race agitator and all the social justice warriors in Bernieville. They will reap what they sow, I blame the voters for 30 plus years of progressive policies to destroy the Vermont I was born in.
Not a liberal loon Jeffy – do you ‘capiche’ the part about reasonable, articulable suspicion?
You stated that I’m wrong, then go on to detail why I’m right – thanks for researching what I already knew. Pity you don’t understand it.
Not a relevant point. Where these criminals come from is relevant, why they might be here is relevant- but to throw minority status in to the argument only lends credence to cries of racism. The people committing these crimes are the result of 2020’s liberal infatuation with ‘Defund the Police’ and BLM movements, exacerbated by policies enacted by the Progressive majority Burlington City Council. The actions (inaction, really) of the Chittenden County States Atty. sarah george is a large factor in the current problems in Chittenden County- as is the ignorance of mental health by Vermont’s legislature and health care industry.
It matters not what ethnic group these criminals might ‘identify’ with, what matters is that the elected leaders of Burlington, Chittenden County and Vermont choose to ignore the rule of law for their ideological views.