Tip led to arrest of man accused of shooting Vermont police officer

Investigators say a tip led to the arrest Sunday of a man accused of shooting a Vermont police officer on Friday afternoon.

Scott Mason, 38, of St. Johnsbury was taken into custody around 2 a.m. Sunday after he was located inside a residence at 251 Portland St. in St. Johnsbury, the house next door to the location where St. Johnsbury police Capt. Jason Gray was shot and seriously injured on Friday afternoon.

At a press conference Sunday afternoon, Vermont State Police Maj. David Petersen said tips from the community were "integral to the investigation." In particular, one tip that pointed investigators to the home next door to where Mason lived, which is where he was ultimately apprehended 32 hours after the shooting occurred.

Watch Sunday's full press conference below:

"Late in the evening Saturday night, we had a tip about a possible location of where Mason was located on Portland Street. We had detectives with the Criminal Division interview this individual, which led to the issuance of a search warrant," Petersen said. "Coinciding with that, we had members of our Tactical Services Unit respond and secure the perimeter."

He said police were able to draw out a number of people from inside the property, who were interviewed by police. The Tactical Services Unit then used technology and other means to investigate what was inside the residence.

After that, police prepared to deploy a K9 unit to enter the residence. Warnings were given, and once those warnings were announced and the dog started barking, Mason announced his presence and came out.

"He was confrontational, he damaged some equipment of Vermont State Police," Petersen said. "We had to use control and restraint techniques to secure him."

State police said weapons were recovered, though they have not confirmed that any of them were the one that was used to shoot Gray.

Mason was initially brought to state police barracks in St. Johnsbury and later to the hospital for a medical evaluation. He was then returned to the barracks and brought to jail on the arrest warrant, where he was held without bail pending his arraignment at 1 p.m. Monday in Vermont Superior Court in St. Johnsbury.

Authorities said it is too early to say if anyone else could face charges in conjunction with the investigation.

The town of St. Johnsbury and the FBI had each offered $25,000 rewards for information leading to Mason's arrest. State police said no reward money has been handed out yet, and it will ultimately be up to those agencies to decide whether anyone receives that money.

St. Johnsbury Police Chief Joel Pierce said Sunday that Gray is hospitalized in stable condition and continues to receive treatment. He noted that Gray was wearing a vest at the time of the shooting.

"He's still sedated, intubated, chest tubes... He's still got a lot going on," Pierce said. "We're hoping he'll make a recovery. They're still in the very beginning stages of that whole process, making sure he's OK."

"I also do want to say too that his family does feel the support of the community," he said. "Hopefully, he'll see it too."

State police said this is the first time Vermont has put out a Blue Alert since the system was put in place in 2019. It is designed to spread information to the public when a law enforcement officer has been seriously injured, killed or gone missing in the line of duty, and if suspects involved have fled or continue to be a threat.

The alert went out to law enforcement agencies across New England, though state police said the search was mostly focused on Vermont, New Hampshire and New York.

Petersen also addressed the fact that Mason was ultimately found in the home next door to where he lived, saying investigators searched that property on multiple occasions throughout their investigation. He said they searched it right after the scene was cleared Friday and multiple times on Saturday as well.

"At this point I can't conjecture about whether he was there or not the whole time," he said. "But I can tell you that our resources were in that property multiple times before he was apprehended."