Man with knives arrested after complaint

Police said a Springfield man had a knife clenched in each hand when they found him at the scene of a domestic violence complaint Friday.

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Published January 11, 2016 in the Rutland Herald Man with knives arrested after complaint By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Police said a Springfield man had a knife clenched in each hand when they found him at the scene of a domestic violence complaint Friday. Brian Butler, 57, was held for lack of $2,500 bail last week after he pleaded innocent to a felony charge of second-degree aggravated domestic assault. Butler previously spent a year and a half in jail for stabbing a neighbor during an argument. Springfield Police Officer Steven Neilly wrote in an affidavit that Butler “had a red, clenched face and a look in his eyes like he was staring through me” when he and Cpl. Michael Gilderdale arrived that evening to see what was going on at Butler’s apartment on Wall Street. “(Butler) had two fairly large knives clenched in his hands with the blades held along his wrists…the way a trained knife fighter would hold them,” Neilly wrote. “I drew my firearm and held it in the ‘low ready’ position. I ordered Butler to drop the knives (but) he did not comply. At this time Corporal Gilderdale drew his Taser,” and also yelled for Butler to drop the knives. Instead, Neilly wrote, Butler briefly pointed the knives at the floor and began to “tense up more,” which prompted Neilly to raise his gun and point it at Butler’s chest. At that point, Neilly recounted, Butler turned away from the officers “with the knives held straight out in front of him” and walked back into his apartment before laying the knives down on a stand. “Butler then turned and began walking back toward us with his hands up and I reholstered my firearm,” Neilly wrote. Neilly added that instead of stopping and turning around for handcuffing when the officers told him to, Butler allegedly walked up to Gilderdale, who ended up putting his Taser right on Butler’s chest. “Butler originally advised Cpl. Gilderdale to ‘Do it’,” Neilly wrote, “But (then) almost immediately complied. Cpl. Gilderdale holstered his Taser and asked Butler if he had any more weapons on him and Butler advised he had another knife in his pocket.” After all of the knives had been gathered up and taken outside, Neilly said Butler cooperated with the rest of the investigative process which eventually led to his arrest. The woman who called in the complaint told police Butler had thrown a model airplane at her during a dispute. She said “she is scared of Butler because he tells her that he has killed people in the past,” Neilly wrote in his report. Neilly wrote that the woman described previous instances of violence by Butler and said that when she told him she had just called for help his response was allegedly “This is going to be good” and “You better call them back and tell them they are in for a fight. I’m not going down without a fight.” Butler’s criminal record includes a half-dozen previous assault convictions in both Vermont and Georgia, including the 2011 incident in Ludlow in which he stabbed a neighbor in the shoulder because he was angry that his neighbor was washing a boat and the water was running downhill across his driveway. Butler’s criminal record, although extensive, does not show any indication that he has killed anyone. http://www.vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/RH/20160111/NEWS02/160119925