William Bowler, 24, of Swanton, and Alexander Charbonneau, 30, of Burlington, allegedly committed six additional shootings before police arrested them late Wednesday. The men are each charged with felony and misdemeanor counts of unlawful mischief and are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.
The shootings occurred throughout the Queen City with no discernible pattern and frustrated investigators for two years. The men targeted cars parked on or near streets and inflicted damage that ranged from $500 to $2,000 per vehicle, police said.
Authorities did not provide a motive for the shooting spree. Charbonneau had a “significant amount” of weapons on him at the time of his arrest, police said, including an automatic BB gun, a 9mm pistol, knives and tools. The men were driving a blue Dodge Ram truck.
Police say they generated leads from previous media reports of the shootings. The investigation is ongoing. Police asked anyone who has more information about the crimes, or has seen the Ram truck involved, to call Sgt. Brian LaBarge at 802-540-2269.
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Hats off to Burlington Police Department for nailing these two.
Now let’s all sit back and watch the so-called “justice system” fail to mete out lengthy jail-time for these two handsome fellas. Which BS ploy do you think their lawyers will successfully foist on the courts: Abused as a child? Fetal alcohol syndrome? Learning disability? PTSD? Gosh, there are so many good ways to beat the rap these days.
Someone needs to tell Florida Man that these two were copycatting.
They look nice.
I cannot for the life of me understand the point of this kind of vandalism. I know they haven’t released a motive, but ffs, what on earth would motivate two people to go on this kind of extended spree that does nothing but make other people miserable without any real other outcome?
Great to hear they have been apprehended. These two shot all the windows out of my VW Bug last year.
Great job Burlington Police for staying on the case.
I spent over 500 on repairs I think these pieces of shit should work in prison until every single victim is paid for their damages. Human garbage.
I would like to recommend to the commenters here the principle, long a part of the constitutional system that rules our lives, of presumption of innocence. The fact that the police apprehended these men and charged them with a crime is no evidence of guilt, in the eyes of the law. While I’m sure that the penalty phase, if we ever reach that far, will be full of evidence of the past behavior of these men, it has no place in a trial. So please, let’s adjudicate guilt in a proper forum, not the comment section of a free weekly newspaper first.
Some days it is embarrassing to be a white guy, and these two dull eyed, obese knuckleheads are embarrassing.
Barbara
Presuming innocence is all well and good, but when one of the two already admitted to the crimes in his interview with police (see the much more fleshed out WCAX article on the matter), we can pretty safely presume guilt.
If it looks like a moron and acts like a moron, it’s probably a moron.
I know I’ll probably get trashed on this forum but William is a decent young man. Yes, he’s done something stupid and I’m sure regrets it and has caused people a lot of money. I do know his background, since he’s was a young kid, and it hasn’t been easy for him but he’s always been a hard worker. I hope he can put this behind him and find his way.
RB: doing something stupid that he will regret? Really ? this has been going in for 2 years and over 200 vehicles were vandalized. I believe in responsibility and I do not buy it was something stupid. Maybe a one time deal would be something stupid but this goes well beyond that.
RB: Just a momentary lapse of judgment?
“Decent” William ought to be working hard to pay a lot of people for the pointless damage they had to cover. Between the out of pocket expenses and insurance hikes, he (and his buddy) have cost a lot of people who did absolutely nothing to him tens of thousands. If he’s such a decent guy, he’ll be personally making things right with an awful lot of people.
If only this zeal for justice was directed towards the players in the Jay peak eb 5 fraud