A Barre City woman has been charged with threatening to shoot state social workers and police.
Sabra Sironi, 39, was arraigned on Friday in Chittenden County District Court on two counts of obstructing justice charges for threatening to shoot a social worker and a police officer.
Sironi’s alleged threats to harm the Department for Children and Families social worker was in retaliation for the removal of her four children from her custody, according to an affidavit. The children were recently taken into state custody, following prior charges of driving while intoxicated and child endangerment, the affidavit says.
The Barre City Police arrested Sironi Thursday evening. She was transported to the Chittenden County Correctional Facility where she was held for lack of $1,500 bail.
Tim Bombardier, chief of the Barre Police, said his department has received a number of reports of threats to DCF workers since last August, after Jody Herring was apprehended for the shooting death of social worker Lara Sobel.
In investigating threats, Bombardier says, “you have to look at the totality of the circumstances.” Some are vague, he said, typically someone “spouting off” about frustrations.
“That wasn’t the case in this incident,” Bombardier said. “This was (a) clear threat of I’m going to shoot somebody, and named names.”
The Department for Children and Families has received more than 180 threats over the past 11 months, according to Ken Schatz, commissioner of the department. Schatz praised the Barre police for looking into it quickly, taking action and filing charges. The state will be implementing new safety measures in the coming months.
Those safety measures can’t come soon enough for state workers, said Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association. “As Vermont approaches the one-year anniversary of Lara’s Sobel’s death, VSEA and its members continue to wait for some kind of plan from the administration about how legislatively appropriated money for safety and security is being–or is going to be–allocated,” Howard said. “The kinds of threats against workers, like the one in Barre, are increasing, not decreasing, so, again, the time for action to address the safety and security of frontline Social Workers–and all state employees–is now.”
Scott Williams, the Washington County State’s Attorney, asked his staff to evacuate the second floor offices of the Barre District Court Thursday afternoon. The DCF workers whose offices are on the fourth floor were not evacuated because there was not a perceived threat to employees, Schatz said. The courthouse entrance has metal detectors and security guards. Schatz said the department “made sure that everyone’s safety was taken into account.”
Sironi’s alleged motive for the threats is eerily reminiscent of the Aug. 7, 2015, shooting. Herring is accused of killing Sobel and three female relatives who reported her to DCF. Shortly before the shootings, her nine-year-old daughter was removed from her custody, and in an interview with police, she said the killings were in retaliation.
All four of Sironi’s children were taken into custody on June 10. In the past four and a half months, there have been five reports filed with DCF ranging from truancy to substance abuse, driving while intoxicated, and a suicide attempt. Sironi was the sole caregiver; her husband is incarcerated. Between 2009 and 2016, DCF had accepted several of Sironi’s children into state custody eight times, according to the affidavit.
In a conversation with her mother and a foster parent, Sironi allegedly said she intended to buy a gun at a flea market so that she could shoot the people who had taken her children away. She asked the foster parent to buy her a gun so she could “shoot the two officers” that went to her home in May.
Sironi also allegedly said she would shoot Cpl. Randall Tucker of the Barre City Police and another officer who cited her for charges of child endangerment and driving while intoxicated. She leveled threats against the foster parents who are caring for her children, court documents say.
None of the threats were made directly to the Department for Children and Families.
Sironi allegedly told her mother, Victoria Pruitt, about her intention to shoot police, foster parents and social workers. Pruitt told police that Sironi had a handgun that shot corks or pellets.
Pruitt, who lives in Winooski, told police that Sironi bought a fifth of vodka and started “chugging” booze straight from the bottle, court records show. In addition, she shot up Adderall and Ritalin in the bathroom, according to Pruitt’s affidavit.
Sironi began talking loudly, rapidly and nonsensically for hours, Pruitt reported. The first person she allegedly threatened to harm was her husband. As soon as he got out of jail, Sironi told Pruitt, she “would shoot him in the head,” the affidavit says. Sironi then said she would shoot the social worker who was involved in the removal of her children and the social worker’s supervisor, according to the affidavit. She would “shoot the foster parents if she had to,” in order to get her children and flee the country, Pruitt told police.
Her daughter showed Pruitt a Taser and a heavy, metal handgun that Sironi said was a “cork gun,” according to the affidavit. Pruitt told police she could not verify what kind of firearm it was.
Pruitt, a psychologist, described her daughter’s behavior as “psychotic.” She told police Sironi should be “involuntarily committed and if arrested for her recent behavior, would be incompetent to stand trial.”
Vermont Superior Court Judge James R. Crucitti released Sironi on conditions Friday afternoon, according to court filings. Those conditions include a 24-hour curfew in the custody of a responsible adult approved by the court.
A new law takes effect on July 1 that criminalizes threatening and sets up an enhanced penalty for assaults on social workers.
