This article by Jordan Cuddemi was published by the Valley News on Sept. 10.
MONTPELIER — The Vermont Attorney General’s Office says it won’t prosecute the Vermont State Police troopers who fatally shot Jeremy Potwin following an armed standoff outside a mobile home on Gage Road in Tunbridge in May.
Trooper Neil Carey and Sgt. Matthew Tarricone acted reasonably when they fired shots at Potwin after he emerged from 920 Gage Road with his pregnant girlfriend, Calen Vaine, in front of him and with a semi-automatic handgun pointed at her head as he advanced toward police, Attorney General T.J. Donovan said in a news release on Tuesday morning.
Potwin also “held a large-caliber revolver which was pointed directly at members of the Tactical Services Unit” and ignored “repeated demands” to drop his weapons, the Attorney General’s Office said.
Potwin had fired several shots out of the house toward police in the hours preceding the fatal shooting.
Carey fired a single shot at Potwin but didn’t hit him, prosecutors said. Tarricone fired a single round and hit Potwin in the right shoulder-blade area, authorities said.
“Based on the totality of the circumstances, it was reasonable for Troopers Carey and Tarricone to think that they, Ms. Vaine, and other members of law enforcement were in imminent danger of being killed or seriously harmed by Mr. Potwin,” Donovan wrote. “Accordingly, Troopers Carey and Tarricone’s decision to use deadly force to stop the threat was reasonable and justified.”
Troopers had arrived on the property that day to serve Potwin an arrest warrant for an alleged violation of probation. He also was wanted for questioning in other criminal cases, including three nearby fires in Tunbridge.
The Orange County State’s Attorney’s Office also reviewed the case and have declined to prosecute the troopers, the release states.
On Sunday, a fire destroyed the mobile home on the property where the shooting took place. Potwin lived nearby at 896 Gage Road.
