Vermont Attorney General releases Newfane bean bag video

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BRATTLEBORO — The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has released body camera videos from June 16, 2022, when a Newfane man was shot with a beanbag round by troopers with the Vermont State Police.

Raw body camera video footage from Vermont State Trooper Zachary Trocki from a June 2022 incident in Newfane in which a man fell off a porch roof after the troopers fired a projectile at him.

On May 30, Sgt. Ryan Wood, 36, and Trooper Zachary Trocki, 29, pleaded not guilty in Windham Superior Court to charges of reckless endangerment for shooting the beanbag round at Marshall Dean, then 61, who was on the porch roof of a home on Route 30.

Raw body camera video footage from Vermont State Sgt. Ryan Wood from a June 2022 incident in Newfane in which a man fell off a porch roof after the troopers fired a projectile at him.

Wood’s video, at three minutes and 29 seconds long, shows him arriving on the scene and meeting with a witness.

“Be real honest with me,” says Wood, “what’s he high on?”

The witness says he thinks heroin and cocaine.

In the background, Dean can be heard shouting “Help me. They’re trying to kill me.”

As Trocki gets out of his cruiser, Wood asks him if he’s got “a beanbag,” to which Trocki says yes.

“Hey, buddy, what do you got in your hand,” shouts Wood. “Put it down. ... We’re here to help you. Put it on the ground.”

Dean just shouts back, sometimes incoherent or asking for help.

While that’s happening, Trocki is loading a shotgun with beanbag rounds.

“If you can take the shot, go ahead and take the shot,” says Wood, after ordering Dean several times to drop the saw.

They shout “beanbag, beanbag, beanbag” before firing, after which shattering glass can be heard.

“He’s got a good fall there, guys,” says the witness after the sound of shattering glass.

Dean was first treated at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital before being transported to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., for further treatment.

Dean later told investigators he couldn’t remember anything about the incident. A caseworker at Groundworks Collaborative told investigators that Dean qualified for the Traumatic Brain Injury Program through Vermont’s Adult Services Division.

The troopers were also cited with simple assault, but Judge Katherine A. Hayes concluded after reviewing the evidence there was no probable cause for the charge.

Bob Audette can be contacted at [email protected].

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