Shelburne police officer driving cruiser attacks and kills cyclist in South Burlington

Updated at 16:39

An on-duty Shelburne police sergeant driving a cruiser fatally struck a bicyclist in an early Monday morning crash in South Burlington, according to Vermont State Police.

Sean Hayes, 38, of Burlington, died in the crash, state police said in a press release late Monday afternoon.

Sergeant. The driver of the cruiser was 41-year-old Kyle Kapitanski, the statement said.

According to state police, the crash occurred around 2:45 a.m.

Kapitanski was driving a Ford Explorer SUV cruiser southbound on Route 7, also known as Shelburne Road, in the area of ​​Fayette Drive in South Burlington.

“The cruiser struck a southbound bicyclist who was pulling a trailer,” state police said in an earlier press release. “The cyclist, a man, was declared dead at the scene. At the time of the accident, the weather was rainy and dark, and the road was wet.”

According to the statement, Kapitanski was not injured in the accident.

South Burlington police initially responded to the crash, led the investigation and requested assistance from the Vermont State Police Crash Reconstruction Team around 3 a.m., according to the release. The team responded to the scene.

At noon Monday, the South Burlington Police Department asked state police to take over as lead law enforcement in the investigation, the statement said.

A crash reconstruction team and a detective from the state police’s criminal division are expected to investigate the crash, according to the statement.

State police did not respond to follow-up questions about the crash Monday afternoon.

They referred questions about Kapitanski’s employment status to the Shelburne Police Department. Shelburne Police Chief Michael Thomas did not immediately respond to email and called Monday afternoon.