Vermont town tries to recover

ESSEX, Vt. -- Essex school officials postponed the start of classes as families grappled yesterday with the worst spate of violence ever to hit the quiet Vermont town, the shooting deaths Thursday of two women, including a beloved second-grade teacher.

As parents and children laid flowers outside Essex Elementary School, where some of the shootings occurred, the alleged gunman pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder and was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Christopher A. Williams, 27, who authorities said shot himself twice in the head after his rampage, appeared in court handcuffed in a wheelchair yesterday. He said nothing and looked stunned . If convicted, he faces life in prison.

Prosecutors said Williams shot four people, killing his former girlfriend's mother and a teacher at Essex Elementary and wounding a third teacher and a friend of the former girlfriend.

The former girlfriend, Andrea Lambesis, said in court papers that Williams had been ``flipping out" in the two days prior to his rampage, angry that she and her mother, Linda, had kicked him out of their house. The night before the slayings, he grabbed a knife in their kitchen and threatened to slit his wrists, Lambesis said.

``He wanted to demonstrate to his girlfriend that he cared about her and that he was dying because of her," Joan Tracy, a psychologist who evaluated Williams, said yesterday in District Court in Burlington. She added that Williams said he wanted to drown himself in a toilet and that he had grown up witnessing domestic abuse.

Criminal records show that Williams has a long history of violence in Springfield, Mass., where he lived for years. His record dates to 1996, when he was 18 and was convicted of dealing crack cocaine. His record also includes convictions for assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, and auto theft.

According to Springfield police records, Williams once threatened to kill a former girlfriend and her stepmother. The girlfriend had a restraining order against him when he called her and said, ``I'm going to kill you the next time I see you," according to the police report.

He also called the girlfriend's stepmother, telling her: ``All of you all are going to die over there tonight," according to another police report.

Ed Klingebiel, co-owner at Klinger s Bread Co. in South Burlington, where Williams got a job earlier this month bagging loaves at night, said it was hard to reconcile Williams' s alleged crimes with the diligent worker he knew.

``Everybody loved him," Klingebiel said. ``He was fast, he was good, and he got along with everyone."

But at a backyard pool party yesterday, parents and students mourned the victims, two teachers who had helped educate the town's children for decades.

Adam LeBlanc, 15, a sophomore at Essex High School, fondly recalled when one victim, Mary Shanks, was his second-grade teacher and taught the class how to raise beetles.

``I was online last night, and all of my friends were freaking out," LeBlanc said.

``It's a total shock to this community, because that doesn't happen here," said Mary Beth Magnant, 48, a medical technician whose son, Luke, 15, had Shanks as a teacher in the second grade.

According to court records, Williams launched his rampage in Essex after borrowing a .45-caliber Ruger from an acquaintance of Andrea Lambesis.

He went first to her house looking for her and shot Linda Lambesis, 57, a second-grade teacher at St. Albans Town Educational Center, inside her kitchen, police said.

Then he went to Essex Elementary, where Andrea Lambesis is a first-grade teacher. About 40 students and administrators but no students were preparing for the start of classes next week. Williams fired two shots at the front door, court records said.

Over the PA system, the principal called for a ``hold drill," the school's code for a lockdown. Teachers bolted their classroom doors, as Williams stalked down the hallway, gun in hand.

Police said he fired into one classroom, piercing the door and killing Shanks, 56, a teacher at the school for 22 years. He fired into another classroom, wounding Mary Snedeker, 52, a teacher for 14 years, police said.

Williams went next to the home of Chad Johansen, 26, a friend of Andrea Lambesis from whom he had borrowed the gun. The two argued because Williams wanted to kill himself, and Johansen told him he did not want blood on his new carpet, Williams told investigators, according to court records. Williams shot Johansen in the hand and forehead, before turning the gun on himself and firing twice as police closed in, authorities said.

``It's just the worst thing you can imagine," said Andrea Brown, a school psychologist who worked with Linda Lambesis in St. Albans. ``The only saving grace was, thankfully, there were no children at the school."

Yesterday, Essex Superintendent of Schools Jim Fitzpatrick pushed the opening of school back a week, from Wednesday to Sept. 7 for the elementary school, and said extra counselors would be made available.

He said the tragedy could have been worse. ``The crisis plan was followed, and it literally saved lives," Fitzpatrick said in an interview. ``The courage and response of the principal and staff was truly outstanding."

Governor Jim Douglas said the slayings in Essex underscored the importance of reporting incidents of domestic violence before the abuse turns deadly.

Douglas said he would make extra counselors available to help Essex residents.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com; Levenson at mlevenson@globe.com.