Note: this statement was written and published by the MadFreedom Advocates Board on July 9, 2025.
MadFreedom Advocates grieves the killing of Scott Garvey, a 55-year-old unarmed man experiencing an apparent mental health crisis, who was shot and killed in his own home by Vermont State Police on July 7, 2025.
According to official reports, Mr. Garvey had barricaded himself inside his apartment and was making statements of self-harm. Law enforcement responded to the scene with an embedded mental health caseworker. Yet instead of continuing efforts to engage Mr. Garvey safely, the Vermont State Police obtained a warrant to forcibly enter his home. They reported seeing an object in his hand that they believed was a firearm. It was not. No weapons were found in the apartment. Mr. Garvey was shot multiple times and died from gunshot wounds to his torso and leg.
We are outraged that this preventable death occurred despite the presence of a mental health professional on the scene, despite years of statewide policy development, and despite a widely publicized prior tragedy—the 2016 killing of Phil Grenon in circumstances that bear a chilling resemblance to this case.
Following Mr. Grenon’s death, the Vermont Mental Health Crisis Response Commission issued a set of urgent recommendations intended to prevent another fatal law enforcement encounter with a person in emotional distress. These included:
- Avoiding forced entry unless there is an imminent threat to others;
- Using time, space, and containment to avoid confrontation;
- Allowing embedded mental health professionals to lead crisis responses;
- Engaging natural supports or known contacts to de-escalate the situation;
- Recognizing the difference between psychiatric crisis and criminal behavior;
- Centering the sanctity of life in every tactical decision.
These recommendations were not followed. Instead, police chose force over time, confrontation over compassion, and escalation over care. That is not just a policy failure. It is a moral failure.
It is a moral failure to meet suffering with violence.
It is a moral failure to treat disability as dangerousness.
It is a moral failure to ignore the lessons of past tragedies and repeat them, with fatal consequences.
When the state responds to a call for help by delivering bullets instead of support, it tells the public—especially those with mental health challenges—that their lives are disposable. That their crises will be met not with understanding, but with guns drawn. That no amount of training, no number of task forces, no list of reforms can ultimately guarantee their safety— even in their own homes.
Mr. Garvey did not need to die. He needed time. He needed care. He needed someone to see his humanity.
We call on the Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the Windham County State’s Attorney to conduct a transparent and public investigation into Mr. Garvey’s death. We demand immediate release of all body-worn camera footage. We call on state officials to explain why
Vermont’s Statewide Use of Force Policy—which strictly limits deadly force and emphasizes de-escalation in mental health encounters—was not followed.
If Vermont is to uphold the dignity and rights of all people, especially those in a mental health crisis, we must do more than update policies. We must honor the lives lost by refusing to normalize their deaths.
Until we choose compassion over coercion, and care over control, these tragedies will continue.
We must choose differently. Mr. Garvey deserved better. We all do.