An 18-year-old shot and injured by the Ludlow police chief pleaded not guilty on Thursday to several charges related to the incident, including attempted second-degree murder.
Law enforcement officials say Jaime Gomez had a knife and lunged at Ludlow Police Chief Jeffrey Warfle on New Year’s Day.
Prosecutors charged Gomez with second-degree attempted murder and two charges of aggravated assault. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges Thursday. If convicted of the murder charge, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
According to Vermont State Police, Warfle responded to a call around 6 a.m. on Jan. 1 that Gomez was agitated and causing a disturbance at the Fox Run Inn in Ludlow.
Warfle told state police he’d previously encountered Gomez, and he’d flagged Gomez for "violent tendencies and possibly schizophrenia,” according to a police affidavit.
When Warfle arrived at the inn, he went to Gomez’s room, where they spoke and Warfle offered to help him, according to the affidavit. Warfle then went up a set of exterior stairs to talk to Gomez’s neighbors at the inn, who’d called the police.
While Warfle was speaking to the neighbors, Gomez came up the stairs. Warfle and Gomez briefly spoke, and after telling Warfle he didn’t have anything, Gomez lunged at Warfle, according to body camera footage described in the affidavit. Warfle then shot Gomez and told him to drop the knife. Gomez, while on the ground, slid a knife towards Warfle, the affidavit says.
Gomez, who appeared to have been shot twice in the abdomen, was taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, according to the affidavit.
In a subsequent interview at the hospital, Gomez told investigators that he started hearing voices a few years ago and continued to hear them for the two or three months he’d been living at the Fox Run Inn, the affidavit says.
Gomez told police that someone had “tapped into his thoughts” and that the people living upstairs were giving him “alien vibes,” according to the affidavit.
Gomez admitted to investigators, according to the affidavit, that he was scared that morning Warfle showed up because he thought he could go to jail for yelling. Gomez told police he tried to attack the chief and he wasn’t thinking, the affidavit says.
Gomez is currently being held without bail at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.
State police are investigating Warfle’s use of force in the incident. Once they complete their investigation, the attorney general’s office and a county prosecutor will review the incident to determine if the shooting was justified.
There’s a longstanding pattern in Vermont of police shootings involving people with mental health issues. Several lawmakers introduced a bill this session that’s intended to prevent these situations.
