BARRE, Vt. (AP) - About 300 people packed into Barre's Old Labor Hall Sunday to pay tribute to a Vermont social worker who was gunned down by a woman who police say was upset at losing custody of her 9-year-old daughter.
Some cried openly while others stifled tears. Some spoke warmly of Lara Sobel, the veteran social worker whose death on Friday outside the office where she worked has shaken many state employees, but others said they didn't know her or work for the state, but attended the vigil to show their support.
"Lara was a beautiful, beautiful individual and she really, really cared about the kids, all the kids," Joseph Faryniarz, the cousin of Sobel's husband, said during the vigil that included a march ending at the spot where Sobel was shot and killed as she left work. "This is a tragedy and the family is doing the best that it can."
Police said Jody Herring shot Sobel, 48, twice on Friday with a hunting rifle, killing her outside an office of the state Department for Children and Families in Barre as Sobel, a 14-year DCF veteran, was leaving work.
Herring, 40, was tackled by bystanders. She was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
On Saturday, police were called to a home in the neighboring town of Berlin where they found the bodies of two of Herring's cousins and an aunt. Authorities believe Herring killed her relatives before going to Barre and shooting Sobel, but no charges have yet been filed in those deaths.