Police make second arrest in fatal Waterbury shooting
October 22, 2024 | By Lisa ScagliottiVermont State Police announced this afternoon that they are charging a second man from Springfield, Massachusetts, in connection with the fatal shooting incident in Waterbury on Oct. 14.
Eighteen-year-old Samuel Niyonsenga is scheduled to be arraigned in Vermont Superior Court on Wednesday to face a charge of being an accessory to second-degree murder, police said.
He is accused of participating in the incident at the Kneeland Flats Trailer Park in which Shawn Spiker, 34, of Croydon, New Hampshire, was fatally shot, and Michael S. Perry, 57, of Waterbury, was wounded and hospitalized.
This new development comes the day after another Springfield, Massachusetts, man, Fabrice Rumama, 20, pleaded not guilty in Vermont Superior Court to the second-degree murder charge in the case. Rumama also remains in custody in St. Johnsbury without bail pending his next court hearing.
Niyonsenga was ordered held without bail pending the Wednesday court appearance. He, however, was already lodged at the Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury for lack of $50,000 bail since Oct. 19 on a drug charge, according to corrections records.
Niyonsenga is named in court documents filed by investigators detailing the case against Rumama. State police Det. Sgt. Seth Richardson in an affidavit noted that both Rumama and Niyonsenga were apprehended while attempting to flee from a home on U.S. 302 in Orange, Vermont, on Oct. 18. The investigation into the Waterbury homicide led investigators to the Orange home where state police and Homeland Security agents executed a search warrant on Oct. 18, according to Richardson’s affidavit.
Niyonsenga was charged with a felony count of fentanyl trafficking to which he has pleaded not guilty and has been in custody in St. Johnsbury since Oct. 19, according to court and corrections records. His arraignment on the charge in the Waterbury case is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in Vermont Superior Court Criminal Division in Barre.