Huy Tran ’24 was walking home from Shaw’s Grocery with a friend around 8 p.m. on March 20 when a man approached him from behind and attacked him with a knife. Jerry L. Hoffman, 31, reportedly wielding two knives, stabbed Tran in the back four times.
Hoffman was charged with attempted murder in the second degree, aggravated assault with a weapon and resisting arrest. He pleaded not guilty and is currently being held without bail, most recently in the Marble Valley Correctional Facility.
Tran is a Computer Science major and Chinese minor at Middlebury and studied abroad in Taiwan last year. At Middlebury he has been involved in TedXMiddlebury and Distinguished Men of Color, and is currently a board member of the Vietnamese Student Association. He is originally from Vietnam but his family moved to Houston, Texas when he was a child.
On the evening of March 20, Tran and his friend — who does not attend Middlebury, but was visiting over spring break – were chatting while walking up College Street across from Twilight Hall returning from their trip into town when Hoffman reportedly attacked Tran from behind.
“It was just a regular day,” he told The Campus.
Tran said he did not immediately realize he had been stabbed and was confused initially because it had happened so quickly. When he turned around, he did not recognize the man behind him.
“My initial thought was, oh, maybe he misunderstood me as somebody else,” Tran said.
But when he turned around and the man continued stabbing him, Tran realized it wasn’t a mistake. He then tried to get away.
“He shoved me to the ground and he started kicking me and so I told my friend to call 911,” Tran said. “I was on the ground and, you know, I got stabbed, so I couldn’t do much, so I yelled out ‘help.’”
Tran said that he picked up a snow shovel that was leaning against the house and attempted to use it to defend himself from the attacker, but he was pushed to the ground again. He recalled that he was reluctant to hit the attacker with the shovel because he did not want to aggravate him further, and his attacker did not say a word throughout the entire attack.
The attack occurred outside of Hoffman’s home on College Street. Tran said that a man who appeared to know the attacker came out of the house.
Hoffman then entered the house, according to police records obtained by The Campus. The house is located across the street from Twilight Hall and is owned by Middlebury College.
Tran then got up in search of help. He described crossing the street and knocking on multiple doors before finding someone to help him. He knocked on the doors of the language houses on College Street but they seemed to be empty, likely because the college was on spring break at the time.
When a woman eventually opened the door for Tran and his friend, he recalled telling her he had been stabbed and asking her to call an ambulance. Tran was taken first to Porter Medical Center by Middlebury Regional EMS and was then transferred to UVM Medical Center in Burlington, where more resources were available to treat his injuries.
A 911 call was placed at 7:51 p.m. by Tran’s friend who had been walking alongside him when the attack occurred, and soon after, police arrived at Hoffman’s home.
When police arrived, Hoffman emerged from a dark area of the yard holding two knives, as captured by a police body-cam video. Police Officers instructed him to drop the knives while they pointed their guns at him. Hoffman then fled behind the house and into Otter Creek where he stayed for about 15 minutes before eventually dropping the knives and coming out of the water. He was then arrested and taken to Porter Medical Center to be examined after his exposure to cold water.
The college sent out an emergency alert at 8:13 p.m. on March 20 alerting students of police presence on College Street and instructed students to remain indoors for the time being. Students were then given an “all clear” alert at 8:40 p.m., though many students were not on campus at the time because the college was on spring break.
Hoffman has a history of mental health issues and drug abuse, according to police records. He has been arrested in multiple states for drug and assault charges, including for assault and meth use in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Evidence observed and collected by police at Hoffman’s home “indicate Jerry Hoffman was experiencing severe emotional dysregulation in the days before the incident, and they demonstrate Jerry Hoffman was preoccupied with or actively pursuing violent responses to that instability,” the police report stated.
Tran spent the night following the incident at UVM Medical Center before returning to campus the following day. He said that the recovery process was very difficult.
“I couldn’t walk around for more than like 10 to 15 minutes because I would just get a headache. It was hard to lay down or sleep,” Tran said.
Tran took a medical leave of absence during the first two weeks following spring break. He said professors were accommodating, but he encountered some challenges communicating with group project members while on his leave.
“Most of my classmates thought I dropped the class… so I had to communicate some of the information to them,” Tran recalled.
Tran said that he has physically improved a lot since the attack. He spoke briefly about the emotional impact of the event over the past couple of months.
“I personally try not to think about the case that much… I told my friend or my close friends I just don’t want to live my life feeling like a victim,” he said.
He described still feeling some anxiety following the attack, however.
“It makes me feel unsafe walking at night. It’s something that I usually don’t think about when I go to Middlebury because it’s a relatively safe college. But now, you know, walking at night or like past 8 or 9 p.m., I would often kind of have this feeling, like, oh, somebody’s behind me,” Tran said.
Ultimately, Tran said he is focused on finishing the school year right now. He looks forward to graduating and returning to Houston as he searches for a job.
Hoffman’s father was interviewed by police following the attack and shared his suspicion that his son was using meth at the time of the attack. “When he takes meth, he gets very paranoid,” Hoffman’s father wrote in his written statement.
Hoffman’s mother also provided a written statement to the police on the night of the stabbing.
“My husband and I have been trying to get some help for Jerry. Today I told him that I didn’t feel safe with him, and I needed him to leave the house. I was begging him to let us help him,” she wrote.
Hoffman’s mother also described plans that were made earlier in the day on March 20 for him to begin treatment with the Counseling Service of Addison County the following week.
“I was able to get Jerry to call the [emergency] hotline and they made arrangements to begin an intake next week,” she wrote in the statement.
When police visited Hoffman’s home, they found holes punched in the wall. Hoffman’s father said his son caused this damage.
Hoffman’s father also described that his son had recently started walking around the house with a knife in hand, leading him and his wife to remove all of the sharp knives from the kitchen and hide them in their bedroom closet, according to police records. Hoffman’s parents stated that it was possible he took some of the kitchen knives before they were moved or that he found the knives in the closet and took them from there.
In an interview with the Addison Independent, Middlebury Police Officer Chris Mason said that the attack appeared to lack a clear motive.
“As far as we know there really is no motive,” Mason said. “There’s no connection between the victim and the assailant… It doesn’t appear to have been a robbery attempt.”
The stabbing was deemed “random and arbitrary” in police records, and the reports concluded that “given the violence of the assault and the severe risk of death thereby provoked, it is reasonable to infer that Hoffman was attempting to murder Tran.”
Mason told the Addison Independent that police believe substance use and mental health to be factors in the attack, which was substantiated by the statements from Hoffman’s parents.
“The attempted murder was severe, brutal, and cruel, as evidenced by the multiple stabbings inflicted, as well as the fact that Hoffman pushed the victim to the ground and repeatedly kicked him while he was prone after stabbing him,” an officer wrote in the police report.
State’s Attorney for Addison County Eva P. Vekos is the prosecutor in the case. She has recently been under scrutiny for her January DUI charge and has been called to resign.
Hoffman currently awaits trial for the three charges against him. If convicted, he could face life in prison and heavy fines. A status conference, a meeting in which evidence may be exchanged and plea bargains discussed, is set for June 21 in the case of the State of Vermont v. Jerry Hoffman.
Susanna Schatz ‘24 (she/her) is the Senior News Editor.
She previously served as Local Editor, Staff Writer, and Visuals Artist for The Campus. She is an English major and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies minor.
Susanna is the social media and marketing intern for a small business started by Midd Alums, Treeline Terrains. In her free time you’ll find her taking in the Vermont outdoors hiking, swimming, skiing, reading in an Adirondack chair, or painting the scenery.
