According to police, a former University of Vermont student equipped with an AR-15-style rifle shot and murdered a woman and critically injured her roommate before pulling the trigger on himself just blocks from school.
Mikal Dixon, 27, climbed through an apartment window on North Winooski Avenue in Burlington about 2:20 a.m. Burlington Police Department Acting Chief Jon Murad said the incident occurred Monday after a failed attempt to force through the front door. At the time, Kayla Noonan, 22, and a friend identified only as “C.R.” were residing at the home.
Classes at the school, which has a campus about a mile from the crime scene, are set to begin on August 29.
Dixon, according to authorities, crawled through the window with an AR-15-style short-barrel gun and started shooting.
“He shot and killed Ms. Noonan. He shot and wounded C.R., and then he shot and killed himself,” Murad explained. C.R., who called 911 but was “extremely close to death” by the time police were able to enter the residence, helped police put together the sad course of events.
Based on her condition, police worried that C.R.’s account of what happened might be “dying declaration statements,” and she’s now in moderate but critical condition, according to Murad.
Investigators determined that Dixon and Noonan “had a relationship going back several years,” and that there was a relationship between all three of them, though Murad really wouldn’t elaborate.
The firearm was seized at the scene, but authorities were unable to say if it had been legally acquired.
The motive for the crime was not disclosed.
