STATE OF VERMONT

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

VERMONT STATE POLICE

 

Vermon State Police provides update on Danville shooting

 

DANVILLE, Vermont (Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023) — The Vermont State Police investigation into Saturday’s shooting in Danville is continuing.

 

The deceased man is identified as Wayne Payton, 50, of Danville. An autopsy performed Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington determined his cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, and the manner of death is a homicide.

 

The injured man is identified as Tellurian Surles, 23, of Danville. He remains hospitalized at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

 

VSP’s Crime Scene Search Team has finished processing the residence on North Danville Road where the shooting occurred.

 

Investigators continue to ask that anyone with information about this incident call the Vermont State Police in St. Johnsbury at 802-748-3111 or submit an anonymous tip online at https://vsp.vermont.gov/tipsubmit.

 

 

***Initial news release, 7:25 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023***

The Vermont State Police is investigating a shooting that occurred just after 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023, at a private residence on North Danville Road in Danville in which one man was killed and a second was injured.

 

Initial investigation indicates two household members became involved in a dispute, and the men exchanged gunfire. The deceased man is 50 years old. The wounded man is 23 and was brought to Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury and later transferred to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. His condition is stable.

 

Their names will be released as the investigation continues and following the completion of an autopsy, which is expected to occur in the coming days at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington.

 

This investigation is in its earliest stages and involves members of the Vermont State Police Major Crime Unit, Bureau of Criminal Investigations, Field Force Division and Victim Services Unit.

 

Saturday afternoon’s incident is not connected to a shooting Friday night in St. Johnsbury in which two men were shot and critically wounded.

 

Anyone with information that could assist investigators is asked to call the Vermont State Police in St. Johnsbury at 802-748-3111 or provide an anonymous tip online at https://vsp.vermont.gov/tipsubmit.

 

No further information is available at this time. The state police will provide updates as the investigation continues.

 

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