BRATTLEBORO-On July 7, family, friends, and strangers gathered in memory of Scott Garvey, who was shot and killed by a Vermont State Police (VSP) officer in his home on that day one year earlier.
At the beginning of the vigil, church bells rang for seven minutes — each minute for each of the shots fired on the day Garvey was killed.
Attendees showed support to the family throughout the evening, with several of Garvey’s friends and acquaintances sharing stories, special encounters, poems, and songs.
Garvey’s family said they discovered after his death that he had made friends all around the world, offering support, connection, and genuine kindness to anyone who needed it.
“He’d find a sad person on Facebook who needed connection, and he’d send them a book, or a postcard, or just a message” Garvey’s brother, Shawn, said.
Shawn Garvey recalled the vigil that was held a few days after the shooting.
“I remember looking out at the crowd and talking, and seeing tears in everyone’s eyes, realizing that they’re all crying, not only for Scott, but — they’re all crying for their own Scott,” he said.
Kara Garvey-Knapp, Shawn and Scott’s sister, spoke about how she originally planned not to attend this year’s vigil.
“I wasn’t going to be here,” she said. “I just think about this day last year. It’s hard.”
Garvey-Knapp went on to read a poem Scott wrote.
A crisis ends in violence
On June 23, Officer Peter Romeo was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, whose office issued a news release recounting a chronology of the events and the conclusion of an independent investigation.
On July 7, 2025, the VSP responded to Putney Landing Apartments, where Garvey resided with his mother. He had moved in only days before.
Garvey suffered from “auditory hallucinations and schizophrenia,” and his family has been candid about the psychiatric challenges that he has faced through the years.
The investigation described a 911 phone call from Garvey, expressing “concern that people were in the woods with guns, and that someone had tried to break into his house with a gun a few nights before.”
Later that morning, a neighbor reported that “a male was banging on the windows and stating that the voices are telling him to kill everyone,” the attorney general’s office said.
When the VSP responded, troopers and an embedded mental health clinician found themselves in an hours-long standoff with Garvey.
“At times, Mr. Garvey indicated he possessed a firearm. The embedded mental health clinician relayed that Mr. Garvey ‘said he had a gun’ and ‘if he came out, you would have your guns drawn, and he would have his as well,’” the account continued.
“Both VSP and the embedded mental health clinicians agreed that it was unsafe for the public [...] if VSP left the scene without taking Mr. Garvey into custody,” the report said.
Despite her pleas to help de-escalate the situation, VSP denied Garvey’s sister, Kara Garvey-Knapp, entry to the home.
After four hours, the police entered the apartment and saw Garvey holding what Romeo believed was a gun.
Romeo’s actions were “objectively reasonable considering the totality of the circumstances.” The release also states that a use of force expert was independently consulted, also deeming his use of force “reasonable and necessary.”
A later search of the apartment revealed no weapons of any kind. According to his family, Garvey “hated guns” and had ”never owned a firearm.”
According to the Vermont Department of Public Safety, there have been 49 officer-involved shootings since 1977. Each of these cases have been ruled as justified.
‘My brother wanted to be seen’
Shawn Garvey expressed the family’s discontent with the ruling, placing emphasis on the fact that they were largely left in the dark throughout the investigation.Following Clark’s announcement, he made a post on Facebook challenging the investigation’s findings on a number of points.
He said family members sent “45 emails, texts, and phone calls” to Gov. Phil Scott’s office to no avail. “None of them [were] returned,” Shawn Garvey said. “Not even an auto reply.”
The Garvey family filed a civil lawsuit against the Vermont State Police on June 29, alleging that troopers used excessive force and escalated the situation.
Scott Garvey was remembered in a number of ways, one of which was his phenomenal talent as a drummer. Drums were passed around among attendees and played in his honor.
Garvey’s family want him to be remembered for the many things he was: a poet, a drummer, an uncle, a local.
“My brother wanted to be seen,” Shawn Garvey said. “He wanted to be seen as more than his mental illness.”
This News item by Rye O'Brien was written for The Commons.