Shots fired in driveway dispute
Police apprehend West Windsor man after night-long manhunt; no one hurt in incident.
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Vermont state police at the scene of the successful manhunt in West Windsor on Tuesday for a 77-year-old local man. Vyto Starinskas / Rutland Herald |
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By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: August 19, 2009
WEST WINDSOR - A driveway dispute nearly turned deadly after a man allegedly fired shots at his neighbor and led police on an all-night manhunt.
Police said William E. Burch, 77, of West Windsor, is in custody after he spent the night in the woods eluding police until his capture late Tuesday morning.
Burch is being held at Springfield prison, according to the state Department of Corrections, and is expected to be arraigned today in White River Junction District Court on a charge of aggravated assault.
"Last night about 7 p.m., Vermont state police received a phone call from a gentleman on Bald Hill Road indicating that a neighbor of his and he had had a slight disagreement over a driveway," State Police Capt. Ray Keefe said Tuesday. "The one neighbor started receiving gunfire at his residence and he fled the residence."
According to an arrest warrant filed Tuesday in White River Junction District Court, that neighbor was Deputy Game Warden Stephen Majeski. According to the warrant, Majeski returned to his home around 6 p.m. Monday and found his driveway blocked with three large sawhorses. Majeski and Burch engaged in a "short, heated conversation" before Majeski removed the sawhorses and went home, according to the warrant.
It's unclear from court records why Burch put the sawhorses across the driveway.
About 30 minutes later, records state, Majeski heard a pair of gunshots and realized they were coming from Burch's residence. Majeski called state police and then - armed with his Glock .40-caliber weapon - fled his house and took cover in the woods about 75 feet from Burch's house. As he moved through the woods, Majeski told investigators, shots continued to follow him from what he believed to be three different firearms: a high-powered rifle, a shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle, with some bullets striking the dirt 15 feet from him, records state.
Keefe said about 30 officers from state police, Windsor and Hartford police departments and the State Police Tactical Support Unit responded to the area.
Peter Mittenthal, who lives nearby on Brownsville Hartland Road, said he heard shots sometime in the early-morning hours.
"It sounded like a hunting rifle," Mittenthal said. "I heard six or seven shots and there were a few random shots afterwards."
Keefe said Mittenthal heard the sound of gas being shot into Burch's home around 3 a.m. Up until then, police believed Burch was still inside, but later learned Burch had fled the scene on an all-terrain vehicle, which was found a short distance away, Keefe said.
By late morning, a search helicopter circled overhead as state troopers blocked off Bald Hill Road and the adjacent Weeden Hill Road. Around 11 a.m., a game warden found Burch walking on a road about 2 miles from his house and he was taken into custody without incident, police said.
Burch was transported to Mount Ascutney Hospital to be evaluated for minor injuries he sustained from a fall during the night, but police expected he would be treated and released to Windsor police officers, who will charge him with felony aggravated assault with a weapon.
Game Warden Lt. Douglas Lawrence said the outcome - with nobody injured or killed - was about as good as one could hope for.
"One of our own was a victim so we did what he could," Lawrence said. "When it's all said and done, it all ended well."
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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