The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has cleared a Rutland police officer of criminal wrongdoing after he shot eight times and wounded a man during a chaotic scene in a parking lot that stemmed from a drug investigation.
Attorney General TJ Donovan announced the findings into the July 8 shooting late Tuesday afternoon.
The shooting occurred after Officer Nate Harvey was dragged under a vehicle of one of the suspects, 45-year-old Michael Goodnough. Officer Tyler Billings fired at Goodnough’s vehicle in an attempt to prevent his fellow officer from getting run over.
Goodnough, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, survived the shooting and is now facing federal drug charges.
The Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday it determined that Billings was justified in his use of deadly force because the officer “held a reasonable belief “ that Harvey’s life was in imminent danger from the driver.
“This belief was based on the fact that Officer Harvey was lying on the ground close to the front driver side tire of the suspect’s vehicle as it started to move forward,” according to the Attorney General’s Office’s statement.
“It was also based on the fact that Officer Billings had just witnessed the driver drag Officer Harvey several feet by the door of his vehicle and collide with Officer Harvey’s cruiser and a fence,” the release added. “Second, shooting the driver was the only option Officer Billings had to incapacitate the driver.”
The Attorney General’s Office stated it reviewed the case under the same “reasonableness” standard it has in the past as well as a new standard that will go into effect July 1, 2021, following legislation approved last session regarding the use of deadly force by police.
The new standard calls for taking into account the “the totality of the circumstances” in determining whether the force was reasonable and necessary.
“Under the totality of these circumstances,” according to the statement issued Tuesday, “a reasonable officer in Officer Billings’ position would undoubtedly have concluded that there was an imminent threat to Officer Harvey’s life and that to save his life, there was no reasonable alternative to the use of deadly force.”
In a separate review, Windham County State’s Attorney Tracy Kelly Shriver also declined to bring charges against Billings.
The Rutland County State’s Attorney’s Office, citing a conflict in the case, had the matter referred to the Windham County State’s Attorney’s Office to conduct that separate review.
Rutland City Police Chief Brian Kilcullen, reached Tuesday evening, called the findings a “thorough” review of the incident, and said that he was satisfied that Billings’ actions had been found to be justified.
“Anyone reading it will get a real sense of the intenseness of the situation and the danger Officer Harvey was in,” the police chief said.
Billings had been out on paid leave since the shooting and will now go back to on-duty status, according to Kilcullen.
The Attorney General’s Office findings released Tuesday described new details into a wild and confusing series of events leading up to the shooting. A total of five city officers were involved in the incident that played out early on the morning of July 8 in the Tops grocery parking lot.
According to that account:
Earlier, on July 7, the city police department’s Street Crime Unit, made up Billings, Sgt. Adam Lucia and Cpl. Elias Anderson, “received information” that Robert Vandriel was selling drugs from the Travel Inn in Rutland.
Lucia, through Facebook Messenger and using an alias, reached out to Vandriel and arranged to buy a gram of crack cocaine in the Tops parking lot.
That night, Lucia, Anderson, and Billings went to the parking in a white Ford pickup, with Billings, in plain clothes in the driver’s seat, and Lucia and Anderson in the back wearing vests with the word, “Police,” on the front and back.
A little before midnight, just as officers were about to end the operation, Vandrield contacted Lucia to say he was on his way.
A vehicle arrived with Vandriel in it as well as another person. All three officers in the pickup got out. Vandrield had already exited the passenger side of the vehicle he arrived in.
An officer shouted, “Rutland Police,” “Show me your hands.” Anderson grabbed Vandriel at his waist to try to prevent him from getting back in his vehicle.
As Anderson held Vandriel the vehicle moved back, with a door hitting the officer.
“Cpl. Anderson thought he had fallen down, but could not be sure,” according to the account.
“The next thing Cpl. Anderson remembered was climbing over a knee-high fence after the vehicle passed him. Cpl. Anderson then thinks he got into another struggle with Mr. Vandriel to try to get Mr. Vandriel out of the vehicle.”
Officer Harvey, who had arrived at the scene, got out of his cruiser, and went to the driver’s side door of the suspect’s vehicle, opened it, and told the driver, later identified as Goodnough, to get out.
Harvey saw the driver reach for the shifter and, concerned that the car was about to go into drive, grabbed Goodnough’s arm to keep him from fleeing.
The vehicle then sped into reverse with the door open.
Billings had recalled seeing Harvey run to the driver’s side door of the suspect’s vehicle, “appearing to try to rip the driver out of his seat,” the account stated.
Billings then saw the vehicle racing in reverse and it appeared to him Harvey had been struck by the driver’s side door and was being dragged under the vehicle.
Then, Billings reported seeing Harvey on the ground near the front driver’s side tire with part of his body under the suspect’s vehicle and he thought Harvey had been crushed.
The suspect vehicle then started moving forward and Billings fired at the driver.
“Officer Billings advised that he wanted to incapacitate the driver and stop the threat to Officer Harvey,” according to the account.
The suspect vehicle sped away, leaving the lot and heading onto South Main Street. As Billings ran back to the scene he expected to see Harvey seriously injured or dead.
Instead, he was “confused” to not see Harvey there, and Anderson and Lucia also did not immediately know where Harvey had gone.
Unbeknownst to those officers, Harvey had gotten away from the front of the fleeing vehicle and had seen Billings run after it. Harvey went back to his cruiser and drove after the fleeing vehicle.
Soon after, Harvey saw the vehicle had crashed at the intersection of Jackson and South Main Street, not far from the grocery store.
Both Goodnough, who had been shot several times, and Vandriel, who had not been shot, but was injured, were taken to Rutland Regional Medical Center for their injuries and eventually released.
Goodnough is awaiting trial on federal drug charges.
Vandriel has since died, not of injuries related to the incident, according to police.
Kilcullen, Rutland’s police chief, said Tuesday evening his department will now conduct its own internal investigation into the incident to determine if there were any violations of policies and procedures.
Read the story on VTDigger here: AG’s office clears Rutland officer in shooting that wounded man in drug probe.