Bar Tab Dispute Preceded Fatal Burlington Shooting, Cops Say 

Updated at 5:22 p.m.

A fatal shooting outside a bar on Burlington's Church Street early Saturday was preceded by an altercation over payment for a drink, according to police.

Aaliyah Johnson, 22, pleaded not guilty on Monday to a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting, which happened just after midnight outside Red Square. Teville Williams, a 30-year-old Stowe man, died at the University of Vermont Medical Center.



The shooting and the bar altercation that led to it were captured on security videos. Still images included in court papers show Johnson watching Williams speak with bar security before she pulls a handgun from her purse and opens fire.

Bystanders administered first aid to Williams until Burlington police and other first responders arrived and continued lifesaving efforts. As officers arrived on scene, Johnson approached one and admitted to shooting Williams, Officer Brady McGee wrote in a court affidavit.

"It was me, it was me," McGee said Johnson told him, explaining that the victim had "hit me in my face, pulled my hair." She gave McGee her purse containing a loaded Glock pistol and said she hoped the victim would be "okay."

Johnson, who McGee described as "crying hysterically" at the time, told him that she carried a gun downtown for protection and that she is "just tired of men putting their hands on her."

A friend of Williams told police in a sworn statement that the men were approached inside Red Square by two women who asked them to buy a round of drinks because they didn't have any cash. They offered to reimburse Williams using a cash-transfer app on their phones, but Williams claimed they didn't send the money. An argument ensued, and a third woman — Johnson, according to the friend — intervened.

The friend said Johnson threw a drink in Williams' face; she told Officer McGee that she had spilled a drink on Williams' shoe.
Security video from inside the bar shows Williams assaulting Johnson and grabbing her hair, according to the affidavit. The assault was not reported to police, but bar security escorted Williams out the front door onto Church Street, where they continued to speak.

Johnson, meanwhile, was escorted to a side door that connects to an alley known as Thorsen Way, then walked to Church Street and shot Williams, police Chief Jon Murad said on Monday.


In a statement on social media later on Saturday, the Red Square owners said the bar was closed "so our staff can have the time they need to reflect and heal." The statement thanked police, first responders and staff members, who "acted with the utmost professionalism, cohesiveness and bravery in light of these distressing circumstances."

It is legal to carry a concealed gun in bars in Vermont, though business owners can choose to prohibit them on their property. The City of Burlington passed a charter change in 2014 that would ban guns in establishments with liquor licenses, but state leaders never approved it. Vermont, like many states, has a decades-old law that limits the authority of cities and towns to regulate guns.