BURLINGTON, Vt. – A 76-year-old man is dead– shot by police after a standoff in a Burlington apartment. Police were called to the downtown building at about 5 p.m. Monday for a welfare check, after complaints of what they described as threatening behavior.
Police say Ralph “Phil” Grenon met officers at his door armed with knives and then went back inside. After several hours of negotiations, authorities say Grenon advanced toward officers, so one decided to pull the trigger.
Burlington Police say an officer was forced to open fire when Grenon came at them with two large knives. It was the end of a nearly five-hour long standoff inside an apartment at 101 College Street in Burlington Monday night.
“There was an emotionally ill man threatening to kill himself and neighbors, tried to attack neighbors,” Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo.
Grenon was a tenant in the public, senior housing building and he was facing eviction.
The Burlington police chief said Grenon was “emotionally ill” at the time and refused to come out of a bathroom shower while armed with the knives. Cops used a Taser and pepper balls to try to get him out.
“We had our negotiators, they were working for hours,” del Pozo said. “We had our ballistic shields, our polycarbonite shields are less than lethal devices. We had cameras in place. We had calls out to mental health professionals. We interviewed neighbors.”
Those neighbors are now dealing with a crime scene as Vermont State Police investigators worked in the building to put together the pieces.
Rebecca Bernard, a neighbor who said she knew Grenon, described him as a small, thin man, who clearly had problems with mental health.
“Very unpredictable with his personality. One day he’d say hi to you, and the next day– if you even spoke to him– he was very distraught and angry,” Bernard said.
Police say there is body camera video of the shooting. Right now, that’s being reviewed and isn’t being released.
We still don’t know how many times the man was shot.
The Burlington officer who fired hasn’t yet been identified, but an outside investigation of the shooting is now underway.
Grenon’s daughter, Niki Grenon Carpenter, tells us her father was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. She says she is heartbroken by her father’s death.
http://www.wcax.com/story/31533732/mentally-ill-burlington-man-killed-in-standoff-with-police
Another welfare check turns into MURDER.
He answered the door, clearly he was fine….
Cops could have left, but CHOSE to harass him for hours….
he was under threat of eviction, no wonder he was upset!
…he was very distraught and angry,
SO FLUCKING WHAT…
distraught and angry does not mean dangerous.
Stupid neighbors, wait till it happens to THEM!
Calling the police is like asking to be murdered….
WAKE UP PEOPLE
“Cops used a Taser and pepper balls to try to get him out.”
It’s simply amazing how often these things CONVENIENTLY FAILED whenever they had a mind to murder someone.
I call BULLSH#T on that statement.
“A 76-year-old man…”
“… a neighbor who said she knew Grenon, described him as a small, thin man,…”
I refuse to believe that had they actually used those 2 items, he would NOT have been incapacitated.
LYING ICM BAST@RDS!!!
76 and mentally ill.
How do you survive that long and be mentally ill..?
I have friends that I grew up with that weren’t mentally ill and didn’t make it past late 30’s.
Well good thing he was mentally ill.
Cause if he wasn’t.
They would have killed him.
That’s fkd up man.