Man in "Grave" Condition After Shooting At Occupy Burlington Encampment (VIDEO)

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UPDATE 5:40 p.m.: WCAX-TV is reporting the man has died.

The Occupy Burlington encampment remained roped off with police tape Thursday afternoon after a 35-year-old camper apparently shot himself in City Hall Park.

Burlington police said the man was in "grave" condition. Numerous occupiers told Seven Days they believed the man, who they know only as "Josh," was dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Earlier in the day, police were seen removing a body from one of the tents.

Deputy Chief Andi Higbee said police received a 911 call around 2 p.m. reporting gun shots in the park. Higbee said the victim was in "grave" condition and "receiving treatment at the hospital." Police have recovered a weapon and identified the victim but did not release his name pending notification of his family.

"We do not have any reason to believe the public is at risk," Higbee said, adding that the shooting happened "inside or nearby one of the tents."

By late afternoon, the future of the three-week-old Occupy Burlington encampment appeared in doubt. Mayor Bob Kiss planned to meet with key deputies about the incident this afternoon. Organizers of the movement huddled in the park to mourn and plot next steps.

Asked by a reporter if the shooting gives him pause about the future of the occupation, Higbee replied, "Yeah, I think that's a fair statement." (Video of Higbee's statement below the break).

Asked if he thinks it should be shut down, Higbee replied, "I don't think I'm at a point where I could characterize that. It certainly gives us cause for concern. Our responsibility is to keep the public safe and discharge of a firearm in a public place like this, you know, it gives me pause."

Occupier Todd Lacroix (pictured) said he heard the victim was a "mentally disturbed man, who had some drug issues, who had a gun."

"Waterbury got flooded out, the state funding for mentally ill is really breaking down and we here in the park have been a flame for the moths of people who are downtrodden," Lacroix said. "We're doing our best to deal with them and help them but we're not really equipped to deal with that type of people. That's why we have mental institutes for that type of people. But currently, ours is flooded out and the state doesn't really know what to do with them. So they're ending up here.

"So if the state could help us find a way to deal with this thing that they're not doing too well at dealing with, that would be really cool," Lacroix added.

Lacroix, who wore a Vermont Independent Media Center badge around his neck, said he is "very worried" about how the Occupy movement will be perceived once word of the shooting gets out.

"I don't feel some of the media has been very fair to us and it would be nice if they spent a little more time on the issues of why we're here than the homelessness that we're dealing with," he said, as a beeping police vehicle backed into the crime scene.

Another occupier, Hayley Mason of Burlington (pictured), said she knows the apparent suicide victim as "Josh" and said he arrived weeks ago.

"We've pretty much been on a first-name basis in the camp," she said, adding that she heard last night was his birthday. "He's been a part of this community. And this community has really set itself up to be a space where people that are isolated from different parts of society can fit in here. We've welcomed with open arms all sorts of people. So that necessarily attracts people who don't fit in.

"As far as the encampment, I don't know if we'll stay here or not, but the movement's going to continue, if not for Josh, the movement will continue because this is really a tragedy. It's really very sad to have this happen. We've all become very close in this community. But by being so open to all sorts of people, this sort of thing just comes along with it. And it's really too bad that he hadn't been taken care of the way that he needed to be."

Observing the crime scene, Mayor Bob Kiss said, "We have people making their way in difficult situations around the city and around the country. That's a fact. And so this might end up being a safer place than others. Certainly everyone in this group, I would guess, is part of the 99 percent."

Occupy Burlington organizers huddled and held hands in a circle (pictured below), talking and planning their next steps. Jonathan Leavitt, an organizer of the movement, declined to discuss the shooting "out of respect," he said.

Comments

[Margo Howland]

WCAX TV reporting (quoting the Deputy Police Chief) that the man has died.

[Josh Schlossberg]

I sent this to Mayor Kiss. I urge others to contact him as well ([email protected]). STAY STRONG OCCUPIERS!

Mayor Kiss:

I am a resident of East Montpelier but travel to Burlington and spend my money there frequently. I am also involved in the Occupy movement, mainly here in Montpelier, but have attended some of the rallies and assemblies in Burlington.

Please do not use this tragic suicide at the Occupation in City Hall park to clear out the park! There is no convincing argument that somehow people camping out was responsible for this happening. It would be doing a disservice to the dead for you to use this opportunity to get rid of this "inconvenient" protest.

Nothing can prevent people from killing themselves (over 30,000 a year). Except maybe a better world to live in.

I urge you to mourn along with the Occupiers and the rest of the city and state. I urge you to attend the General Assemblies and rallies and talk about how sad you are this happened. But please, here is your chance to leave office having done one last thing that is just and right and true and perhaps salvage some of your tarnished (justly or not) reputation. Defend the right of the Occupy movement to stay at the park! If you take this principled stand, you will always be remembered as having exercised true leadership.

[caleb]

Clear the park. Now.

1. Whatever point the occupiers wanted to make, has been made (although coherence and message has not exactly been a hallmark of the occupiers).

2. From Day 1, camping out in City Hall park has been illegal. Mayor Kiss "looked the other way" because he's politically sympathetic to the unwashed occupiers. Not a valid thing.

3. There is absolutely, positively, no question that if the occupiers were a conservative group, the law against camping in the park would have been enforced on Day 1. Not enforcing the ban on encampment is totally results-oriented.

4. We have seen that Kiss has had to warn the occupiers against noise, drugs, and public defacation.

5. It's not the occupiers' park. It's mine. And everyone's.

6. And now we have guns and shootings in the Park?

Clear the Park. Now.

[one_vermonter]

Thoughts go out to this man's family. The BFP reports that he was a veteran. It's crushing to think about how much pain he must have felt in his life to resort to this.

[Jenny]

This is so sad and why I have started to not enjoy the place I grew up in. I am not talking about the homeless there are so many people that think they are better then everyone else, this town is turning very arrogant.

[Peggy Luhrs]

The police in Burlington are trying to use this vet's suicide as a reason to stop the encampment. The whole situation is a microcosm of why people are there in the first place; that we live in the richest country in the world which does not take care of its veterans, its homeless or its mentally ill. This man got likely got more support from the occupiers than he has from the rest of society. Now the police are trying to use his death as a reason to shut down the occupiers when it is the State that is responsible for misery enough to drive more than 18 vets a day to commit suicide. Stop going after the messengers and deal with the real problems of the 1% hollowing out the whole country in the endo-colonization project.

[faried]

OCCUPY BURLINGTON - STATEMENT ON LOSS OF JOSH

Today, November 10th at 2pm, Josh, a valued member of Occupy Burlington and the houseless community, took his own life at the encampment. We want to take this moment to offer our thoughts and condolences to Josh's family, and to the members of the Occupy community who got to know Josh over the last two weeks.

The thoughts and prayers of everyone in the encampment are with his friends and family. We appreciate the support we have received from the Burlington community, the country, and the world. We ask for everyone’s continued support and solidarity as we deal with this tragedy.

From the first day of the encampment, we have welcomed all members of the community by providing anyone in need with food, shelter, and social support. Despite our best efforts to provide care and support to all members of the community, occupations are not equipped with the infrastructure and resources needed to care for the most vulnerable members of our community. The lack of resources to care for those in need was brought to the attention of Burlington city leaders. Unfortunately, our plea for assistance was not heeded in time to help Josh.

This tragedy draws attention to the gross inequalities within our system. We mourn the loss of a great friend tonight, while discovering an ever-deeper resolve to stand with our most vulnerable citizens. The failure to provide citizens with adequate and accessible physical and mental healthcare is one of the many issues this movement is fighting against.

Again, our thoughts and prayers are with everyone reeling from this loss and we deeply appreciate everyone who has offered support, compassion, and solidarity. It is our hope that this tragedy will serve as a rallying cry for occupations around the country to continue the fight for system change.

In Solidarity,
Occupy Burlington

[Jenny]

I like that a lot. Awesome.

[Shem]

Hey occupy people, why do you have guns in city hall park? Mayor Bob, shut this fiasco down before it really gets out of control.

[caleb]

"This man got likely got more support from the occupiers than he has from the rest of society."

Really? Then why did he wait til he was living with the occupiers to kill himself?

This is another Peggy Luhrs rhetorical special.

Refusing to move when the police have a crime scene to investigate. Shame on you.

[Jenny]

That person may have already had the gun no one was searching peoples things they just wanted to offer them help. It was too late to help this man.

[Eric]

I'm really proud of Occupy Burlington for trying to help those in need rather than turning away homeless like the organizers in NYC. While I understand the need to close off a crime scene, it's preposterous to expect that the organizers could have prevented this tragedy. What does the law and order crowd want, metal detectors at the entrances? Tell you what. The next time a bunch of conservatives want to camp in City Hall Park, I'll sign your petition for an overnight permit.

By the way, people have been known to commit suicide in public with or without an organized protest.

[Pascal Lapointe]

"We're doing our best to deal with them and help them but we're not really equipped to deal with that type of people.

Hi from Montreal. Astonishingly, this comment is almost a word-for-word comment heard many times in the last few days around the Occupy Montreal movement. They, too, are seeing lot of people with mental problems (and homeless too) who came for the free food and the heat. I think there is an under-reported story here, about this, because if it is occurring in Burlington too, it must occur in a lot of cities where there is an Occupy movement right now.

[get real]

Clear the park..
Preferably with tear gas, flash grenades and batons..
Most of those filthy hippies have no idea what they're protesting anyway
Move 'em out so I can once again enjoy the city I love without seeing some dirtbag camper take a crap in the park

[Eric]

Anyone who wonders why the City of Burlington allowed a supposedly left-wing encampment in violation of the rules, look at the post above this one. Peace, love, and hope win hearts. Crowd control and weapons breed contempt.

[caleb]

"Tell you what. The next time a bunch of conservatives want to camp in City Hall Park, I'll sign your petition for an overnight permit."

Eric, your comment above is so oblivious it's hysterical. That's the point many of us have been trying to geth through your thick Occupier skulls: you can't GET a permit to camp overnight in the park. The only reason you Occupiers have been in the park for 2 weeks is because you're breaking the rule against camping and Kiss let you get away with it because you're a leftist group. No conservative group would ever -- EVER -- have been allowed to spend a single solitary overnight in the park.

You got special treatment because you're left wing. And what did you do with that undeserved special treatment? Drank and did drugs, used foul language, made noise 24 hours, and peed and pooped in the park. And failed to report people who were drinking all day long and showing off guns. Until there was a death. Now the police are picking up used condoms and broken glass.

If you were going to break the rules, you could at least have set a shining example of behavior. Instead you left the city a shat-up park to clean up.

[Eric]

"No conservative group would ever -- EVER -- have been allowed to spend a single solitary overnight in the park."

First of all, I'm not part of the Occupy movement.

Second, name one conservative group that has ever expressed interest in camping anywhere in Burlington. Until you do, your allegation is entirely baseless.

[caleb]

"Second, name one conservative group that has ever expressed interest in camping anywhere in Burlington. Until you do, your allegation is entirely baseless."

Gee, any more baseless than the conspiracy theories of Occupy Burlington who believe that everyone -- even socialist Kiss -- is out to get them?

[Eric]

If you have to compare your own nonsense to the nonsense from a few radical supporters of Occupy, you've already become irrelevant.

I have never suggested that Burlington had political motivations in clearing the park, in fact I imply the opposite on another post. All I'm saying to you is that the city did not make an abuse of discretion in allowing the protesters to stay.

[caleb]

All I'm saying to you is that the city did not make an abuse of discretion in allowing the protesters to stay.

And I'm saying exactly the opposite: the rule says no overnight camping. Period. I haven't heard that it says, "in the Mayor's discretion." I don't see how the Mayor had any discretion whatsoever not to enforce that rule. But he chose not to. If you believe he would have chosen not to enforce it for the Westboro Baptist Church, you're on drugs.

The politics of partisan favoritism was played here.

[Eric]

I'm still waiting for someone from the City Council or Attorney General's office to initiate a review of Mayor Kiss's conduct over this. I don't think it will happen because there is no jurisdiction in the world that enforces 100% of the laws 100% of the time. In the absence of complaints, Kiss and BPD were under no obligation to clear the pars. Complaining that they are liberal doesn't count.

Do you really need to compare Occupy Burlington to the Westboro Baptist Church and Ku Klux Klan? I'm assuming that you're not a member of either of those groups. A bunch of unemployed kids were treated better than a couple of hate groups would be. I really don't care. I can't understand why you do. Would it make you feel better if WBC or KKK were allowed to camp in the park on the basis that the First Amendment takes precedence over city code?

Hindsight is 20/20. It is unfortunate that they treated the park like BP treated the Gulf of Mexico. You still don't have a basis to claim that they were treated better than Tea Partiers or mainstream conservative groups would have been.

[caleb]

"Hindsight is 20/20. It is unfortunate that they treated the park like BP treated the Gulf of Mexico. You still don't have a basis to claim that they were treated better than Tea Partiers or mainstream conservative groups would have been."

Yes I do, and tough cookies if you don't like it. They were treated differently than the Westboro Baptist Church would have been. They SHOULDN'T have been.

No, I wouldn't want the Westboro Baptist Church camping out in the park. That's why there is a rule against it. It should have been enforced against the Occupiers, too.

Period. End of story.