A Utica, NY teen was shot early Sunday morning at a Burlington skate park, police say.
Sunday morning, August 11 at 4:38 AM, the Burlington Police Department dispatch center received news from the University of Vermont Medical Center that a male had arrived at the emergency department with a gunshot wound to the chest.
It was reported that the shooting had occurred at the A_Dog Skatepark on the Burlington waterfront. With assistance from the University of Vermont Police Department and the South Burlington
Police Department, officers responded to both the hospital and the alleged shooting scene.
At UVMMC, officers attempted to interview the victim and three witnesses. At the skatepark, officers recovered ballistics evidence.
The victim was identified as a 17-year-old juvenile from Utica, New York. He was in the company of another adult male from New York, and two young men from Vermont, one of whom has been associated with previous Burlington gunfire incidents. None of these persons gave forthcoming, credible accounts.
Medical personnel treated the victim for a non-life-threatening wound to his torso, after which the hospital released him.
Police took him into custody as an out-of-state runaway to await action by the Vermont Department for Children and Families and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Burlington Police Department at (802) 658-2704.
After multiple catch-and-releases, man disrupts Mass at Burlington cathedral, and is released again – A Burlington man with 230 police encounters was released by a judge after police had arrested him twice within 24 hours – once for disrupting services at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Burlington.
Friday, August 9, at about 1:30 PM, police arrested Patrick Ibbotson for violating conditions of release in the Marketplace garage, stemming from a July 25 arrest. A judge ordered police to release Ibbotson with a citation. On Saturday, August 10, at 10 AM, police arrested Ibbotson for violating a trespass order and violating conditions of release at a location on Buell Street. A judge ordered police to release Mr. Ibbotson with a citation.
A few hours later, on Saturday, August 10, at about 4 PM, the BPD’s Dispatch Center received a 911 call reporting that a male who was interrupting mass at the Cathedral of St Joseph and violating an active trespass notice. The caller identified the male as Ibbotson, with whom the caller was familiar from multiple prior negative encounters. Officers arrived on scene and located Mr. Ibbotson on the property.
Officers learned that Ibbotson had been escorted out of the church prior to the start of the service, after which the doors were locked to prevent his reentry. Mr. Ibbotson proceeded to bang on the doors during the service. Police took Mr. Ibbotson into custody for unlawful trespass (for violating a previously issued notice of trespass), disorderly conduct, and violating of conditions.
After this second arrest in one day, a judge again ordered police to release Ibbotson with a citation.
Burlington police say Ibbotson is well known to law enforcement. In the past year, since August 2023, Ibbotson has had nearly 230 law enforcement encounters. During those incidents, he Ibbotson has been arrested 69 times. More than a dozen of those arrests have been for violating conditions of release, indicating that these conditions do not ameliorate his behavior.
Ibbotson has approximately 35 active criminal court cases pending in Vermont Superior Courts.
Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to contact the Burlington Police Department at (802) 658-2704.