A Vermont police officer shot and killed a woman before dying by suicide while on duty Monday, investigators have confirmed.
Vermont State Police said in a statement that Jeffrey Strock, a member of the Berlin Police Department in Berlin, Vt., drove his police cruiser to a two-unit apartment building in Barre Town and shot Julie Fandino, 51, on the back porch.
Strock, 58, then shot himself, police said.
“We probably have as many questions as everybody else does,” Vermont State Police Maj. Dan Trudeau told a news conference outside the crime scene Monday night.
Police were alerted to the incident after the building’s landlord drove by the property around 2:20 p.m. Monday and noticed the police cruiser outside. The landlord discovered both bodies and called police.
Trudeau said Strock was a part-time officer for the Berlin Police Department. The police statement said Strock spent 20 years with the department, as well as eight years as a part-time deputy with the Washington County Sheriff’s Department in Vermont.
Trudeau said investigators could not yet provide more information about the relationship between Strock and Fandino.
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A Facebook page under the name Jeff Strock shows a blonde-haired man in a police uniform standing behind the driver’s door of a police cruiser with “Berlin” clearly visible on the door.
The most recent public post on the page, from September 2016, says he’s “so happy now and in love with my girlfriend Julie.”
More information is expected to be released throughout the week, Trudeau said, adding both bodies will undergo a full autopsy.
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