Vermont State Police have released the names of the two troopers who shot and injured a Rhode Island man in Burke over the weekend.
Sgt. Joshua Mikkola and trooper Richard Berlandy, who are both assigned to the Derby barracks, shot Brendan Sackal, 30, multiple times Sunday night after Sackal led multiple law enforcement agencies on a pursuit through northern New Hampshire and Vermont. Sackal opened fire on the troopers first, according to Vermont State Police.
Sackal, of Hopkinton, Rhode Island, is hospitalized at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in critical condition with non-life-threatening injuries, Vermont State Police said on Monday.
Mikkola and Berlandy are both on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure after a police shooting. VSP’s Major Crime Unit will investigate the incident and then turn the case over to the Attorney General’s office and a county prosecutor who will conduct an independent review of the officers’ use of force.
The incident began Sunday night after Rhode Island police alerted their counterparts in New Hampshire and Vermont that Sackal, who is wanted on charges of possessing high-capacity firearm magazines, might be near a cabin in New Hampshire. A 2022 Rhode Island law banned gun magazines that carry more than ten rounds.
Hopkinton police were looking for Sackal after getting a call from his neighbors on Friday. The neighbors told police they found a bullet that they thought had been fired from Sackal’s porch lodged in a bedroom air conditioner unit, said Hopkinton Police Chief Mark Carrier
Hopkinton Police found spent shell casings around the porch, Carrier said in an interview with The Public’s Radio.
Sackal had previously been denied an application to purchase a gun under the Rhode Island law that allows local police departments to review firearm applications, Carrier said. Sackal had also received “extensive mental health treatment,” and had more than two dozen contacts with police, Carrier said.
“He was not granted permission to purchase a firearm,” Carrier said. “So when I discovered he had access to a firearm, I got a pit in my stomach saying, ‘Oh boy.’”
Police got a search warrant for Sackal's house and found multiple weapons, high-capacity magazines with ammunition loaded, a bullet-proof vest and ballistic helmet, and a radio capable of monitoring police frequencies, Carrier said.
Hopkinton Police believed that Sackal was near a cabin in New Hampshire, so they alerted local police, as well as state police in New Hampshire and Vermont, and U.S Border Patrol.
Border Patrol agents spotted Sackal's truck near Pittsburg, New Hampshire on Sunday night, Vermont State Police said. Sackal briefly pulled over, but then drove off and eventually crossed into Vermont. Police used tire spikes, but Sackal kept driving down Route 114 on flat tires while being pursued by multiple law enforcement agencies, Vermont State Police said.
VSP Maj. Dan Trudeau said on Monday that Sackal stopped after crashing into two Vermont State Police cruisers.
“The gist is Sackal exited his vehicle, there was an exchange of gunfire which he started first,” Trudeau said. “Sackal was injured and he was given aid and taken into custody.”
Charges against Sackal related to his alleged conduct are pending, according to Vermont State Police.
The Public’s Radio’s Jeremy Bernfeld contributed to this story.
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