A large police presence surrounded a house on Portland Street in St. Johnsbury — two buildings down from the House of Pizza — following a shooting on Friday, Dec. 13. Photo by K. Fiegenbaum/VTDigger.Antino Pepper, who authorities said provided key information leading to capture of the suspect in the shooting and wounding of a St. Johnsbury police captain earlier this month, has picked up the $25,000 reward the town had offered in the case.“Mr. Pepper collected his check earlier this morning from the Town Treasurer,” St. Johnsbury Town Manager Chad Whitehead said in an email Thursday to VTDigger. The town’s selectboard voted Monday night, as first reported by The Caledonian Record, to provide the reward to Pepper, who court records indicate had tipped off police where shooting suspect Scott Mason was hiding.Mason was captured about three hours after police received the tip — a day and a half after the shooting — in the apartment building where Pepper reportedly told police Mason had been hiding.Mason has since pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including attempted first-degree murder, in connection with the shooting of St. Johnsbury Police Capt. Jason Gray late on the afternoon of Dec. 13. The shooting occurred after police had gone to Mason’s apartment while investigating a domestic violence report.The search for Mason prompted the state to issue its first ever Blue Alert, which is used to inform the public of an ongoing search for someone suspected of injuring or killing a police officer.Mason, 38, is currently being held without bail at Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport. Gray has since been released from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, where he was taken for treatment of his injuries. A day after the shooting, the St. Johnsbury Selectboard held an emergency meeting during which they approved a $25,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Mason, who had fled the apartment house where the shooting took place. Pepper contacted police after the reward was offered and reported that Mason was inside an apartment building next door to the building where Mason lived and where the shooting took place, according to court documents filed in Mason’s case. “When Pepper was asked why he was providing information about Scott Mason, he stated Scott had ‘shot a cop’ and it wasn’t ‘cool,’” charging documents in Mason’s case asserted. “Pepper also stated he is also trying to get out of Vermont to go home to Louisiana and knew there was a $25,000 reward being offered for Scott’s arrest,” the court filing added.According to court records, Pepper himself had been arrested by St. Johnsbury police on an unrelated probation violation warrant two days before the shooting, but he was not in custody when he gave police the tip.READ MORE Pepper also reported that several other people were in the apartment where Mason was hiding and that there were discussions about arranging a ride to get Mason out of the residence, the court records stated. After Pepper contacted authorities, according to the court filing, police obtained a warrant to search the building, and a state police tactical team raided the apartment and took Mason into custody. Vermont State Police Maj. David Petersen wrote in an email to the town last week that the information provided by Pepper was “essential” in leading to Mason’s capture.“Ultimately, the information supplied by Mr. Pepper, that Mason was in a house on Portland Street, proved timely and accurate,” Petersen wrote in the email obtained by VTDigger. “VSP acted on this information and apprehended Mason.”The town’s reward sought only information leading to the suspect’s arrest in the shooting. The FBI also offered a $25,000 reward, but that reward was based on information not only leading to the arrest but also the conviction of the suspect, a process that could take months or more than a year to resolve.Read the story on VTDigger here: Tipster collects $25,000 reward in St. Johnsbury police shooting case.