DUXBURY, Vt. — A man accused of driving the wrong way on an interstate, crashing into a car and killing five high school students, is facing trial on an unrelated domestic assault charge, prosecutors said Monday.
A police affidavit says Steven Bourgoin hit his girlfriend in the head and threatened to throw her downstairs in May. Police say when she tried to leave with their 2-year-old child, Bourgoin got into the vehicle, drove them around and threatened to kill them. The now ex-girlfriend received custody of the child last month, prosecutors said.
Bourgoin remained unconscious and in critical condition at a hospital Monday. Police say that after crashing into the teens’ car Saturday night, he took a police cruiser and crashed into seven more cars. They say he was injured when he was thrown from the cruiser, which went up in flames.
Prosecutors say Bourgoin is their prime suspect in the teens’ deaths, but they haven’t charged him. They applied for an arrest warrant on charges related to use of the police cruiser.
It was unknown if Bourgoin has an attorney. A public defender representing him in the domestic violence case didn’t immediately return a phone call.
Chittenden County state’s attorney TJ Donovan raised questions about the motive for the crashes. When asked if the driver was trying to kill himself, he said he “would not classify what occurred on Interstate 89 as an accident.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin ordered flags to fly at half-staff. He called the teens’ deaths “unimaginable and heartbreaking.”
The teens died at the scene of the crash in Williston. They were Mary Harris, 16, of Moretown; Cyrus Zschau, 16, of Moretown; Liam Hale, 16, of Fayston; Janie Cozzi, 15, of Fayston; and Eli Brookens, 16, of Waterbury.
Classmates, teachers and staff at Harwood Union High School in Duxbury, where four of the five were students, held a candlelight vigil for them. About 1,000 people attended. Many cried before releasing lanterns that floated off into the chilly night.
Darrell Mays, Harris’s uncle, thanked the community for supporting the family but said their grief was only just beginning to be felt. He urged the students left behind to honor their friends who died.
“Live a great life,” he said. “That’s what you can do for your friends who died.”
Dan Weintraub, Cozzi’s soccer coach and European history teacher at Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, N.H., said her teammates and coaches deeply loved her.
“She always came to every practice with a huge smile and put in a 100 percent effort,” he said. “Everybody followed her lead.”
Bourgoin, 36, is a warehouse associate at Lake Champlain Chocolates. A spokeswoman said workers were as shocked and saddened as everyone else in the area.
