Nearly four years after he was accused of sneaking up behind a stranger and shooting him twice in the head at Burlington's City Hall Park, Christopher Crawford entered a guilty plea in the September 2022 killing of Bryan C. Rogers II. The 42-year-old New Jersey man, a 32-year-old man who had recently moved to Burlington from Philadelphia, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars with time already served.
WPTZ reported that Crawford entered the plea and received the sentence. Alongside the 10-year term, Crawford received a suspended sentence of 20 years to life, meaning he could be sent back to prison to serve the remainder if he violates probation after his release. Per WPTZ, his probation will eventually be transferred to New Jersey, and the reduced sentence will run consecutively to a pending five-year federal drug sentence he still faces.
Charges tied to the original case were dismissed without prejudice as part of the arrangement, per WPTZ.
Surveillance Footage Showed the Attack Was Premeditated
Police affidavits described the shooting as calculated rather than spontaneous. Security camera footage reviewed by investigators showed Crawford entering City Hall Park nearly 20 minutes before the shooting, looking in Rogers' direction, and sneaking up behind him as he sat with his girlfriend, according to Seven Days. The outlet reported that police affidavits described Crawford as “lying in wait” before he fired two close-range shots into Rogers' head and neck shortly before 1 a.m. on September 4, 2022.
The same footage that established premeditation also helped identify the getaway car, leading investigators to a second man, Joseph K. Craig, who was charged with aiding in the murder after driving Crawford to and from the park that night. Craig told investigators he had met Crawford in prison and had been staying with him in Winooski, and that he drove Crawford to St. Albans the day after the killing to sell drugs, according to VTDigger. Craig claimed he did not witness the shooting itself because the park's restrooms blocked his view, the outlet reported.
A Record of Prior Felonies and an Active Warrant
At the time of his 2022 arrest, Crawford had a prior criminal record in New Jersey that included eight felony convictions and an active extraditable warrant for failing to appear in court on a cocaine sale charge, VTDigger reported. Police at the time noted Crawford had no permanent residence in Vermont. Three days after the shooting, Burlington police stopped a vehicle carrying Crawford and found a gun in his bag.
That discovery led to a separate federal indictment in December 2025, when a grand jury charged Crawford with possession with intent to distribute 28 grams or more of cocaine base and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He was already being held by Vermont authorities on the murder charge when the federal indictment came down, and his pending five-year federal sentence is structured to run consecutively to his state time.
A Negotiated Sentence
The 10-year term was imposed as part of a negotiated plea deal.
Under Vermont law, first-degree murder — the charge Crawford originally faced — carries a sentence of 35 years to life without parole. The plea deal reduced Crawford's exposure substantially, resulting in the 10-year state term rather than a life sentence.
A Shooting That Exposed Gaps in a Heavily Patrolled Downtown
The killing happened despite a heavy police presence in downtown Burlington that Labor Day weekend, when four Burlington police officers and six Vermont State Police troopers were patrolling nearby, according to VTDigger. State troopers had been deployed downtown specifically to bolster Burlington police patrols during the holiday. Acting Police Chief Jon Murad noted at the time that officers responded within seconds, but the shooter carried out the attack regardless of the nearby law enforcement presence.
Rogers' killing marked Burlington's third homicide and 23rd gunfire incident of 2022, Seven Days reported. Burlington had averaged only two criminal gunfire incidents per year between 2012 and 2019, per the outlet's reporting.
City Hall Park was the site of the 2022 killing.
