[B]ARRE CITY — The killing was over in minutes.
At 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday morning, police say, Luke Lacroix burst into the apartment of his former girlfriend armed with a 9mm handgun. He brandished the firearm at Courtney Gaboriault and Fred Longchamp, a friend who was with her in the apartment. After a struggle, Longchamp broke free, ran outside and phoned the police.
Arriving officers were greeted by the sound of multiple gunshots, and the sight of Gaboriault stumbling out of the apartment.
These are among the details to emerge Thursday from the investigation into the death of Gaboriault, 29, an employee of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, at the hands of Lacroix, 30.
“This is a domestic violence murder,” Barre Police Chief Timothy Bombardier said late Thursday afternoon.
“It’s a sad day at the Department of Public Safety,” Public Safety Commissioner Thomas Anderson said Thursday afternoon.
Anderson said Gaboriault had worked in the Vermont Crime Information Center, based in Waterbury, for the past five years, including the last 18 months as the administrative services coordinator with the Vermont Marijuana Registry, which is under the department’s jurisdiction.
“Domestic violence touches us all — and yesterday it touched the men and women of the Department of Public Safety in a particularly direct and heart-wrenching manner,” Anderson said.
Bombardier said the first officer to respond to Longchamp’s call was getting out of his cruiser when he heard the gunshots from inside the apartment on Long Street.
Police, who did not fire any shots, pulled Gaboriault to a safe location and then, with guns drawn, checked inside the apartment. They found Lacroix dead from what appeared to be a last, self-inflicted, single-gunshot wound to his head, Bombardier said.
The relationship between Gaboriault and Lacroix had ended about eight months ago, Bombardier said. The police chief said he had no record of any restraining orders issued against Lacroix, who also lived in Barre. He said he knew of no criminal record for him.
Police did say as part of their investigation that they discovered the tires had been slashed on Longchamp’s truck, which was parked outside the apartment on Wednesday morning.
Bombardier said it was not possible to say for sure whether Lacroix slashed the tires.
Police believe the handgun used in the shooting belonged to Lacroix. They were unable to say how many times Gaboriault had been shot. An autopsy has been ordered.
Long Street is located in a residential neighborhood just outside Barre City’s central business district. The apartment house were Gaboriault lived had multiple units, and she shared her two-bedroom unit with a roommate, who was not home at the time, the police chief said.
Bombardier described the apartment as “immaculate” — “one of the nicest apartments I’ve ever been in.”
Gaboriault was a lifelong Vermonter who graduated from Lake Region Union High School in Barton in 2007.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in human services in 2011 from Lyndon State College. Her parents, younger sister and extended family live in the Northeast Kingdom and central Vermont.
A statement issued Thursday by the Department of Public Safety said that at work Gaboriault was “known for her good humor, her love of animals and her commitment to helping others.”
“She was always happy to help a co-worker with any issue. She brought a sense of joy to her work and her co-workers every day,” said Jeffrey Wallin, director of the Vermont Crime Information Center. “Her loss is keenly felt by her colleagues and all whose lives she touched.”
Following the commissioner’s news of the death of their colleague, department employees were offered counseling.
The shooting death of Gaboriault is another in a recent spate of domestic violence related homicides in Vermont.
In May, a warrant was issued charging Leroy Headley, 36, with second-degree murder in the shooting death of his 33-year-old girlfriend, Anako Lumumba, on May 3. Police say Headley killed Lumumba in a South Burlington house they shared. Headley disappeared after the shooting, and police have been searching for him since.
Also in May, Randall Swartz was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife, Thea Swartz, 54, on May 15 in Orleans. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, and is being held without bail at the Northern State Correctional Facility.
“This was another senseless act perpetrated by a man who sought to control and dominate another person,” Anderson said of Wednesday’s fatal shooting.
“It’s a concern,” Anderson said Thursday. “It’s just flat-out wrong … it can never be justified.”
Bombardier, the Barre City police chief, said “Domestic violence is not an act of love, it’s an act of power and control.”
Anderson said the seemingly increasing incidence of domestic violence-related homicides is “a concern.”
Washington County State’s Attorney Rory Thibault called it “alarming.” He talked of the importance to spreading the word of services available to assist those in need.
Thibault said domestic violence “doesn’t correlate with any of the usual risk factors for criminal behaviors,” such as addiction, or substance abuse or poverty.
He added, “Domestic violence can take place, and does take place, in every single town in Washington County, and every town in Vermont. It’s not contingent on socio-economic status, or anything else.”
Authorities said anyone in need of help can call the Vermont Network Domestic Violence hotline at 1-800-228-7395. The Vermont Attorney General’s Office also has a website with available resources.