ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. -
The 911 call came in shortly after 1 a.m. Friday morning from a
13-year-old boy who lives in the home at 135 Main Street in Essex
Junction.
"The caller reported that he was awakened by his father who was screaming
outside the residence," said Essex Police Chief Brad LaRose.
Responding officers found 40-year-old Shawn Garrett restraining a man on
the front lawn. Garrett told police the stranger broke into his home
and threatened him with a knife. Police say the two men started fighting
and during the altercation Garrett stabbed the intruder.
Neighbor Levi
Burleson says he could hear the struggle from across the street. "Then
all of a sudden, not even five seconds after, some guy was screaming,
'Help, help, call the police,' and that went on for like five minutes
and then it was quiet and then you heard one more scream for help and
the cops were here," he said.
Investigators recovered two knives from the scene but are not saying
whether the fatal stabbing occurred inside the home or on the lawn.
"He appeared to be dead. He wasn't moving. I stood here for ten minutes
-- he hadn't been moving. The ambulance came through and they were
asking the guy, 'Can you hear me, can you hear me?' There was no
response and the body was totally limp," Burleson said.
Police say the victim was in his mid 20s but they don't know his name.
Six houses down from the crime scene, police were questioning residents
at an apartment complex and showing tenants the dead man's photo. "He
said that there was a stabbing and that the gentleman was deceased and
if I had known him. And I had said I had seen him around the complex,"
said neighbor Joyce Goodrich.
Goodrich and other residents of 119 Main Street described the man as a
transient who had been staying with a friend in one of the apartments.
They say the man made them nervous. And police believe he may have been
dangerous.
"The deceased has been linked to other unreported crimes,
criminal activity in recent days, to include aggravated assault and
robbery," Chief LaRose said.
Police said Shawn Garrett is cooperating with them and that he hasn't
been charged. They're trying to determine whether the family was
targeted or whether it was a random break in.
As to the question of whether it is legal to kill someone who breaks
into your home? WCAX spoke with legal defense expert David Sleigh. He
said Vermont law is unsettled on the matter and it will be up to the
prosecutor to determine three things -- the nature of the threat Garrett
faced, If Garrett had options other than deadly force, and if deadly
force was a reasonable response to the situation.
