Updated at 5:44 p.m.
A Fair Haven police officer shot and killed a 38-year-old man from Castleton on Monday night, according to Vermont State Police.
Kenneth Barber, Jr., left a Fair Haven residence armed with a handgun around 7:30 p.m. Monday and began fighting with neighbors on Washington Street, state police said in a press release Tuesday. The neighbors restrained him and separated him from the gun, according to police. But after Detective Shaun Hewitt of the Fair Haven Police Department arrived, Barber broke free, got into a vehicle and tried to drive away.
Barber then struck Hewitt with the car, after which the detective fired one shot from his service weapon, killing Barber, state police said.
An autopsy conducted Tuesday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found that Barber’s death was caused by a gunshot wound to the torso.
The Fair Haven Police Department is not equipped with either body or cruiser cameras, according to state police, so investigators have relied on interviews with witnesses and videos taken by bystanders.
Hewitt has served with the Fair Haven police department since 1998, after working for the Rutland County Sheriff’s Department and Brandon Police Department. He is the Fair Haven department’s firearm instructor.
The investigation by Vermont State Police, standard protocol in Vermont police shootings, is continuing.
Read the story on VTDigger here: After armed altercation, Castleton man shot and killed by Fair Haven detective.