BRISTOL — Two people were shot, one by a state trooper, during an incident Thursday evening on Pine Street in Bristol.
Both victims remain hospitalized on Friday afternoon, police said, but did not elaborate on their conditions.
Police said they were dispatched to 62 Pine St. around 8:30 p.m. Thursday evening where a Bristol man, Norman Michaud, 56, had threatened to shoot himself. When officers from the state police barracks in New Haven, Bristol Police Department and Addison County Sheriff’s Department arrived, they heard a gunshot.
Police said a man then arrived at the scene and said his mother, Tina LaBoissiere, 42, of Crown Point, N.Y., was inside the home and had a gun. Using the son as an intermediary, police spoke with LaBossiere and asked her to put down the gun and meet officers in the driveway.
The home on the property is more than 100 feet from Pine Street, situated mostly behind another house, and is difficult to see from the road. Officers saw LaBossiere walking down the driveway toward them while “waving a large handgun.” After the woman ignored repeated commands to drop the weapon, police said, Vermont State Police Sgt. Michael Dion fired once and struck LaBossiere.
A screenshot from Google Earth displaying 62 Pine Street in relation to the road. © Google 2014
Police said they “secured” LaBossiere and transported her to Fletcher Allen Health Care in an ambulance that was already at the scene. Officers then moved up the driveway, where they found Michaud lying on the ground outside the home with a gunshot wound to his head. Michaud was also taken to Fletcher Allen.
State police Col. Tom L’Esperance said Friday afternoon that police believe Michaud’s wound was self-inflicted, and that both LaBossiere and Michaud were still hospitalized.
Police said they also encountered another man at the residence, who they briefly detained for questioning and then released. According to town land records, the property is owned by Arnold Menard. The Burlington Free Press reported that Menard was at home at the time of the shootings.
VSP Sgt. Dion, 37, was placed on administrative leave with pay, per department policy. The state police hired Sgt. Dion in January 2006, he is assigned as a patrol commander at the New Haven barracks.   
On Friday morning, officers from the Bristol Police Department and Vermont State Police remained on the scene. State investigators took photographs of the property, and had placed a white sheet near the driveway of 62 Pine St. The block of the street between Liberty Street and Munsill Avenue was closed to pedestrians.
Many curious town residents, including students walking to nearby Mount Abraham Union Middle/High School, stopped at the police tape to have a look at the scene.
Coleman Russell, who lives about 150 feet from the 62 Pine St., said he heard two shots, several minutes apart, around 8:30 p.m. Darwin Kimball, who lives on the property adjacent to the scene, said he and his wife thought they heard two shots. Both residents said they have never seen police called to that home before.
This is the second time this year troopers from the New Haven barracks have been involved in a shooting. In March, officers engaged in a firefight with a man suspected of shooting his neighbors in Leicester. In that incident, two troopers were shot in the head, but survived.