Police cars block off an area in Winooski after a fatal shooting occurred. Photo Andrew Kutches/VTDigger
Deputy Nicolas Palmier, 31, shot Jesse Beshaw behind a community center on Malletts Bay Avenue after a foot chase. Beshaw, 29, of Winooski, was shot six times and grazed by a seventh bullet, according to Maj. Glenn Hall of the Vermont State Police.
Palmier is on paid administrative leave from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, where he was hired in 2015.
It’s still unclear why Palmier joined Winooski police who were responding to a Union Street home where Beshaw was spotted. Beshaw was wanted on an arrest warrant for burglary.
Hall said that Palmier chased Beshaw behind the nearby O’Brien Community Center. When Beshaw turned and advanced on Palmier with a hand behind his back, Palmier opened fire, according to Hall.
The Burlington Free Press first reported Palmier was fired from the Winooski Police Department in 2010. A termination letter provided by Winooski police gives no reason for Palmier’s dismissal. Winooski Police Chief Rick Hebert, who was not chief at the time, did not provide a reason for Palmier’s dismissal on Friday.
Eight months later, in July, 2011, Palmier began working as an officer for the St. Albans Police Department. He was fired in February, 2012, for omitting information from a police report.
Earlier in that month, Palmier had arrested an intoxicated man who was creating a disturbance and reportedly attempting to drive a car. The man fought with officers who at one point attempted to taser him as they placed him in a holding cell.
The man remained belligerent, and Palmier writes in a report that he used pepper spray to get him to stop screaming and kicking the cell door. The man needed medical attention for wounds suffered during his struggle with police, and Palmier accompanied him in an ambulance to the hospital.
In his original report, Palmier wrote that he waited with the man in the emergency room until he was relieved by another officer, when in reality, it was later revealed that Palmier had left the man unattended and in restraints, according to documents provided by St. Albans police.
In a May, 2012, letter to St. Albans Police Chief Gary Taylor, Palmier states: “The source of this error in my recollection was not based on an intentionally inaccurate statement of facts,” but because there was a two week delay between the incident and when he wrote his original report.
A year later, in February, 2013, Palmier reached a settlement with the St. Albans Police Department whereby Palmier would agree to tender his resignation, backdated to his firing, and Taylor or his successors would agree to provide an employment reference for Palmier.
A draft copy of the reference letter included in the settlement states that, “Mr. Palmier was a competent police officer who on one occasion, prior to completing his probationary employment term did not include information in both a written and oral investigation report that later proved to be material to the investigation.” The letter further states that Palmier voluntarily resigned as a result.
Documents in Palmier’s personnel file further state that he paid his own way though the police academy prior to joining the St. Albans Police Department, though they agreed to reimburse Palmier for $2,000 of the $6,700 cost of his training.
The Free Press reports that the Vermont Police Academy no longer accepts self-pay students. Cindy Taylor-Pach, the academy’s training director, told the paper that tuition paying students were uncommon even before the policy change, which occurred in 2012 — not long after Palmier completed his training there.
Students must now have already been hired by a police department in order to attend the academy. The change was implemented because self-pay students were “cumbersome” and many were not getting hired, according to the Free Press report.
Palmier is a Winooski resident and lives on the same street where Beshaw was living before he was killed, according to the Free Press. It’s unclear whether the two knew each other, but Seven Days reported that they both frequented the same area deli and convenience store.
State police are still conducting their investigation, which will be turned over the Chittenden County State’s Attorney and the Attorney General, who will determine whether the shooting was justified. Chittenden County State’s Attorney TJ Donovan said he expects to complete his review of the case next week, provided state police file their report with his office in time.
Several media outlets, including VTDigger, have requested body camera footage from the shooting. Those requests have been denied, citing an exemption for records pertaining to an ongoing investigation.
On Friday, Donovan told the Free Press that the body camera footage would be released, saying “It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when.”
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