FBI joins the case

by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First

EAST RYEGATE — A wanted felon, who authorities say opened fire on federal deputy marshals during a chase in the Northeast Kingdom this afternoon, has been wounded and was taken to a New Hampshire hospital for treatment, officials said.

Douglas Reynolds, 36, who has had multiple addresses in the area, was being actively sought as a fugitive from justice on Thursday by the U.S. Marshals Service in Vermont and New Hampshire, officials said.

By Thursday night Reynolds was lodged without bail at the Grafton County Jail in Haverhill, N.H. on a variety of charges, including assault, fugitive from justice, reckless conduct and being a habitual offender, a jail spokesman said. It was unclear when Reynolds might appear in court.

Details are sketchy, but the search for Reynolds was in several towns in the Caledonia County area, into New Hampshire and back to East Ryegate where he was taken into custody on U.S. 5 after the shootout about 1:15 p.m., officials said.

At some point during the dragnet, Reynolds opened fire upon the marshals and they returned fire, officials said. EMS was dispatched to the area of the Ryegate Small Animal Hospital.

Reynolds was wounded and was taken initially to Cottage Hospital in Woodsville, N.H. and was later released to Grafton County officers, a hospital spokesman. Earlier reports that said he was transferred to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. were inaccurate.

Reynolds is well known to police on both sides of the Connecticut River. He was the target of a Vermont State Police SWAT team effort in August in Ryegate for an arrest warrant from Bradford Police.

Bradford Police also had reported about 8 a.m. Jan. 17 the department encountered a maroon Ford Fusion parked in the Bradford Mini-Mart parking lot and recognized it as being possibly involved in a recent vehicle pursuit. Officers also observed the driver slumped over in the front seat. Upon contacting the driver, Douglas Reynolds, then 35, of Groton, police observed several weapons in the vehicle including a rifle on the passenger seat, police said.

Reynolds was ordered from the vehicle and detained. This resulted in the discovery of two other firearms, a pistol carried by Reynolds and a .22 revolver he was concealing underneath him in the driver’s seat, Bradford Sgt. David Shaffer said in a news release.

Bradford Police arrested Reynolds for suspicion of DUI — drugs, and subsequently he was found to be in possession of both suspected heroin and crystal methamphetamine, police said. He was processed and subsequently released on a citation ordering him to appear in Vermont Superior Court in Chelsea on March 13.

The Vermont office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had been asked to consider adopting the criminal case for a federal prosecution.

In June 2023, Haverhill N.H. Police arrested Reynolds, who was living in Woodsville, N.H. at the time, on 23 charges, including for eight counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and three counts of criminal threatening a person, the Journal Opinion newspaper in Bradford reported.

John Hall, the acting U.S. Marshal for Vermont, said Thursday afternoon that one person was in custody.

He confirmed there had been a shooting, but could not say if anybody had been hit.

Hall said task force personnel were in the area and there was no danger to the community.

He said more information would be forthcoming in cooperation with the U.S. Marshals headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Hall declined to say if any of the pending arrest warrants were for a federal prosecution or that the U.S. Marshals Service had been asked by Vermont authorities to help chase down a wanted person.

There are no known public criminal cases currently in U.S. District Court in Vermont for Reynolds. Federal prosecutors normally ask the judge to seal arrest warrants until the wanted suspect is taken into custody for the sake of the arresting officers.

The apprehension of fugitives is one of the primary functions of the U.S. Marshals Service, which is the oldest federal law enforcement agency in the nation.

Vermont State Police said they were not involved in the chase. The department has a policy that mostly prohibits high-speed pursuits.

The Vermont State Police criminal division has been called in to help investigate the shooting. U.S. 5, also known as Ryegate Road, was closed to traffic for several hours as authorities investigated and collected evidence.

UPDATE:

The FBI in Albany, N.Y. announced at 10:45 PM Thursday that the bureau also was joining the investigation, but offered no new details The brief statement said:

“FBI Albany is investigating a shooting incident that occurred at 1:15PM Thursday on Route 5 in Ryegate, Vermont, involving an alleged assault on a federal officer (U.S. Marshal). One subject is in custody. There is no known threat to public safety. FBI personnel remain in the area to process the scene with our partners from Vermont State Police. To preserve the integrity and capabilities of the investigation, we are going to decline to provide further details at this time,” the statement said.