WILLISTON, Vt. — An unarmed burglary suspect was killed after refusing a trooper’s order to surrender and twice took a “shooter’s stance” while aiming at the trooper what turned out to be a cellphone, the head of the Vermont State Police said Tuesday.
Before he died on the way to the hospital, Jonathon Martel, 40, of Stowe told the trooper who had shot him that he “wanted to die,” State police Col. Thomas L’Esperance said during a news conference at the state police barracks in Williston.
The trooper who fired the shot, Senior Trooper Dustin Robinson, 31, a three-year veteran who has been placed on administrative leave, was the only person who witnessed the shooting that took place at about 12:45 p.m. Monday in a wooded section of Cambridge.
Martel is believed to have been hit by one round fired by Robinson, but the trooper fired seven other times. As of mid-afternoon Tuesday an autopsy had not been completed.
L’Esperance, who spoke Tuesday with Martel’s mother, said detectives had spoken with people who said Martel had been discussing suicide for several weeks.
“I do have information that Mr. Martel had a significant drug habit that he was trying to support,” L’Esperance said. “Family members and others have told us he has had a very difficult struggle with addiction.”
State police are doing the initial investigation of the shooting. Once police are done, the case will be turned over to the office of the Lamoille County state’s attorney and the Vermont Attorney General to decide if the shooting was justified.
L’Esperance said Martel was a Vermont native who had moved to Florida and then returned to Vermont. L’Esperance did not know where in Vermont Martel was from or when he moved back to the state.
Police and Lamoille County sheriff’s deputies began chasing Martel’s car early Monday afternoon after it had been reported to have been involved in a burglary in Johnson. The car was chased to the back road in Cambridge where Robinson chased Martel through the woods while other officers were nearby.
“Trooper Robinson ordered Martel repeatedly to stop and show his hands. Martel had his back to Trooper Robinson and was fidgeting with his waistband. Martel then quickly turned around in a shooter’s type stance, pointing a metallic object in Trooper Robinson’s direction,” L’Esperance said.
Robinson first fired seven rounds and Martel moved out of sight down a knoll. Robinson then saw Martel again and ordered him to stop and show his hands. Robinson then fired another round and took cover behind a tree before seeing Martel fall, L’Esperance said.
While rendering assistance, Robinson noticed Martel holding a cellphone and asked why Martel pointed it at him. Martel responded, “I wanted to die,” L’Esperance said.
Even though it turned out that Martel was unarmed, L’Esperance said Martel made the decisions that led to his death.
“John Martel made a decision when he was confronted by Trooper Robinson, after being repeatedly told to show his hands and things like that, he made a decision to form a shooter’s stance apparently to indicate that he had a weapon in his hand and John Martel did that twice,” L’Esperance said.
Another reason not to be a burglar . . .
Sounds like suicide by cop, I feel bad for the officer.
Why would we give someone in Vermont MAINEcare?
OK- free drugs from any goverment program- does anyone realize how MANY people in our society today are on presciption drugs and what it is doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and how many are DYING
You are being kind to jemileesmom.
Seems not to catch on very quickly to your inference.
Rarely are there comments more foolish than what you have posted. As though being poor and needing some assistance means you are going to automatically become a drug addict. It is amazing how brainwashed right wingers will crawl through snowstorms to bash the poor and needy and then will celebrate robbing from the poor and middle and class to give everything to their rich corporate masters. The right wing in this country would make Jesus Christ sick to his stomach.
Where did I say anyhting about being poor- If you could only see what I have seen- has ANYONE in your family been addicted?????????-You would be amazed at the funerals that occcur for a young person in this state who has overdosed or commited suicide because of addication- Do you watch the news and see the almost daily robberies at pharmacies or the recent drug related murders right here in Maine and we have all kinds of goverment programs that allow this to happen or at least give them more opprotuniity. Evere see the KIDS standing in line at the pharmacy. You are right- Jesus would be sick at how we are taking care of of kids
“And lets give them more Mainecare and welfare assistance so that more
young poeple can become addicted to presciption
drugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Welfare implies poor. Tinserblic is saying that simply being on MaineCare or needing welfare assistance doesn’t necessarily mean that one would be a drug addict. Which is true, people become drug addicts with or without government assistance.
But, I do agree that we dole out too many scripts. And I know that not everyone has the sense not to fill them like washintoncntyboy. Doctors can still legally prescribe cocaine. Pure as the driven snow cocaine, from our government. But they don’t; the ones writing the prescriptions are where the problem begins.
BTW, the article just says he was struggling with a serious drug addiction. Doesn’t say what, could be legal or illegal. Come to think of it though, it probably was pills. A few months ago, a young kid died of overdose and it shook the small community I visit monthly. The staties stepped up their game and I remember thinking at the time “Boy, don’t want to be around when they start jonesing!” Guess I was right about that.
“Doctors can still legally prescribe cocaine. Pure as the driven snow cocaine, from our government.” Never heard that – is it like how doctors can prescribe marijuana through state law but not federal? Also, what do they prescribe it for – narcolepsy? :)
And yet I struggle everyday with pain and refuse pain meds because I make good decisions….
Deadmen don’t talk, who knows what the real story could be. Instead of carrying a throw a way pistol, cops can now just carry a thow away cell phone :) much cheaper.
What a well thought out comment. Since you’ve had to make so many life and death decisions in your experiences (sarcasm inserted), I’m sure you know how hard it can be to make such a decision in front of your Playstation 3.
Another anarchist weighs in.
Shouldn’t be to difficult to determine if the cell phone was his or not.
Wow, great response, love it, wish I had thought of that.
Confucius Confucius is totally confused, a potential supplier has been killed.
How are you doing great one..
SD
I hope this is the real story. I would not want to be a cop in that position .
No, the trooper is lying (sarcasm injected here).
Glad you’re OK Trooper.
8 rounds, unarmed man? I obviously wasn’t there but with a 3 year career under his belt, this shooting might have a long lasting impact on the trooper. I can’t help but wonder if a senior trooper might have handled it a little different and maybe a life would have been saved. Then again, maybe this was his only option. That sure is a lot of rounds though without any return fire or sign of a weapon. God Bless both these families deal with their pain. It wouldn’t be a bad time for “trooper cam” located on the trooper’s shoulder so atleast we could learn from this type of scenario.
Bushfan, at least you have the common sense to realize that both sides are effected emotionally in these situations.
What you obviously don’t realize, is how fast a situation like this happens. A person is not showing his hands, perhaps in this case, maybe because he wants the cop to think he has a gun in his hands. He has already decided he wants to die.
In that split second when he turns after he is told not to move and there is something in his hands, what do you do? Is it a cell phone or something else in his hands?
Don’t be close minded.
“then again, maybe this was his only option”. Open your mind.
That statement underlines your entire paragraphs. Open your writing.
So easy to second-guess and armchair quarterback when you weren’t there and it wasn’t YOUR life that was possibly in danger. The guy, a felony suspect just in a car chase, had a dark object presented as a weapon in a shooters stance. The cop repeatedly warned him to stand down. That object was presented as a deadly weapon, and the cop had to protect his own life in a split second decision. Kindly get real and stop the silly armchair quarterbacking.
“then again, maybe this was his only option”. I know LE, learn to read.
I know LE too, after 34 years worth of full-time duty, your statement is prejudiced, you learn to write.
Mall cop?
Common sense well stated.
Those 8 rounds are fired immediately and as one action. Yeah big brother using “trooper cam” yet another, oh well, you wouldnt understand.
Just the title of this article leads the reader to believe there was wrongdoing.. BDN at its finest yet again. I do enjoy reading articles on here however its a chore to sift through the drama just to gather a few facts.
How would you have written the headline?
Druggie/Burglar commits suicide by Cop. Good headline.
Props to the officer. Police officers never know what they will face inn any situation. Any routine traffic stop could turn out to be some crazed crackhead with an M-16. It’s too bad he had to shoot this burglar, but it sounds like the guy did everything he could to make the officer shoot him.
Sad for both Mr. Martel and the trooper. Unfortunately nobody wins in this case. No one should have to “want to die” regardless. Too bad that Mr. Martel didn’t try to get help with his problem before this incident. My condolences to the families involved.
Burglarize—get shot dead. That’s what happens at my home too.
This is a sad story for all involved. It truly sounds like the trooper got jumpy when the burlar kept getting in a stance and he did not take long enough to find out if what he was aiming was a gun or not. Not sure i would want to be in a position where i had to wonder if he had a gun or not. I will say that this is NOT a justified Homicide in my honest opinion. Police are trained to know better. Whether this person wanted to die or not is not een the point(only the officer and the burlar know the truth there since nobody else was there to hear him say it or not), but to me, this officer should never see street duty again. Give him an office job somewhere and keep him off the streets…I do know that in Maine, this would definately be a Justified Homicide, because that is all we have when a cop shoots someone here.
If you were faced with a similar encounter, just how long would you wait before firing in self defense?! Would you tell the individual who is holding an object that could be a gun, taking a stance as if it was a gun and pointing it at you, to take a time out so that you can be sure it is a gun, before you defend yourself? In that time, you could be dead!
Doesn’t matter whether he was armed or not, he was a burglar. Wish BDN would print ‘factual’ headlines that did not sensationalize the good guys.
Suicide by cop!
Never heard that before, brilliant!
===
This economy, the lack of jobs, the desperation that many are going through has put people at the end of their ropes.
As Gerald Celente says:
“when people lose everything, and have nothing left to lose, they lose it!”
So sad all the way around. Trooper Robinson and Mr. Martel both felt that they had to end things this way. The Trooper, because he felt threatened and Mr. Martel because he saw no other way out. Condolences to Martel’s family. May you fin comfort in each other. Trooper Robinson, May you find comfort in friends and family.
And for all you that think “armchair quarterbacking” is so wrong, let me school you on a piece of reality. I know a couple police officers that took the life of another, close friends of mine. Do not think for one second that they have not second guessed themselves and “armchair quarterbacked” their own decision to take a life. Being a cop isn’t easy, being a street cop is even harder. Being a cop with lack of proper training, ongoing training isn’t fair to the officer. As I stated in an earlier post ” MAYBE THIS WAS HIS ONLY OPTION” but there are many times, many officers, have looked back, or recieved training in the future that have shown them there were other options available. Watch a police officer go through the transition of killing another human being. It isn’t very pretty. Some do not handle it well and turn to alcohol or anything else in order to cope. You don’t know that? Well, good for you.
Want to commit suicide? Take a cell phone to a gun fight.
I can only think of 7 things the trooper did wrong.
He missed with all 7 of his first rounds fired. He needs more time on the shooting range.