Updated at 2:56 p.m.

Two men were shot to death on Sunday night in Burlington's Old North End, police said, part of a busy night in the city that also included two other reports of gunshots and a small arson fire at police headquarters.

At least two of the shootings involved drugs, something Mayor Miro Weinberger noted as a concern during a press conference early Monday afternoon.

“That these shootings, the killing of two people and the serious injuring of another, appear to be not connected but both drug-related is a further indication that the nature of our drug crisis in Vermont has fundamentally changed and must become the state's top public safety and public health priority,” the mayor said, standing beside Chief Jon Murad inside police headquarters.



Police responded to 4 Decatur Street just after 9 p.m. and found two men who had been shot in the head. One was already dead, and the other died shortly after at the University of Vermont Medical Center, according to Murad.

Murad said Khalif M. Jones, 27, of Stowe, fatally shot Anthony R. Smith, 26, of Vergennes. A second gunman is thought to have shot Jones, Murad said, and is unaccounted for. The chief said a large group was at the home, and police found evidence of drug trafficking there.

Shortly before those killings, Murad said, police responded to the area around 101 Main Street, near the intersection with Pine Street. Officers believe one shot was fired, and witnesses saw two men flee.

Murad said it’s possible there’s a link to the Decatur killings and the Main Street gunfire incident.
Then, around 1:15 a.m. on Monday, a 37-year-old man called police to say he’d been robbed of drugs and shot in the foot at 225 East Avenue, Murad said. He’s expected to survive, and no suspect is in custody.

“We have cause to believe that that incident is not associated with the incident on Decatur,” Murad said. “The nature of the victim, the history of the victim, the associations of the victim, and the ballistics evidence all suggests that those two incidents are not related.”

Finally, around 2 a.m. on Monday, a homeless man entered a vestibule inside the Burlington Police Department building on North Avenue and used papers to light a fire. The small blaze created “a tremendous amount of smoke,” Murad said, set off a sprinkler in the room and caused some water damage. Dispatchers were temporarily relocated to the South Burlington Police Department for about two and a half hours, Murad said.

The wall of the vestibule was still blackened early Monday afternoon, and repair crews were at the building drying the water. Murad estimated it will cost “many thousands of dollars” to repair everything.
The suspect, Stephen Romprey, 62, was arrested and will be charged with arson and reckless endangerment to account for the people who were in the building at the time, Murad said. Romprey told officers the fire was “to make a point,” Murad said.

“He came in and appeared to be pretty purposeful about starting that fire,” the chief said.

That area of the building is open 24-7 and is sometimes used by people to warm up or to phone in crime tips. But because of the fire, Murad said, the department may close the vestibule to the public at night.

Murad, who joined officers and detectives at the double homicide scene, said the hourslong trail of chaos in the city was unprecedented.

“We're talking about a night that would have been a busy night in any single precinct in the entire country,” said Murad, a former member of the New York Police Department. “I worked in the Bronx. I worked in Manhattan north. I don't remember a night like this.”