Vermont mother kills social worker over custody of her daughter

Long after shots rang out outside Barre City Place on Friday, social worker Lara Sobel’s shoe and the rifle Jody Herring allegedly shot her with remained on the scene.

“Our prayers and thoughts tonight and in the coming days are with all the employees in Barre, their families and especially the family, friends and co-workers of the employee killed”, President of the Vermont State Employees’ Association Shelley Martin said in a statement.

Officials say the female worker had just left the DCF office in Barre late Friday afternoon when she was shot. Sobel, a 14-year veteran of DCF, was married with two daughters.

Police Chief Tim Bombardier told the Burlington Free Press a suspect has been taken into custody. The child remains in state custody, the Free Press reports.

“This could happen in any state office or court”, said Campbell, who is also a state prosecutor. The child welfare agency’s offices in a four-story building are a few hundred yards from the courthouse.

“The connection that we’ve been able to find between the victim and shooter is the result of cases in family court involving DCF and Jodie Herring and some child custody and child welfare issues, the last one of these being July 10 of this year”, Bombardier said.

Shumlin did not release the victim’s name, pending notification of the family.

Sheldon’s stepfather and Geraw’s mother are now facing murder charges, and both have pleaded not guilty to the crimes.

Shumlin said DCF employees deal with challenging family situations and do their work ‘out of their dedication to the children and families of this great state.’.

Vermont governor Peter Shumlin ordered staffers at the Department for Children and Families, where Sobel worked, to be accompanied by police on emergency calls over the weekend.

Police are investigating a fatal shooting of a Vermont Department of Children and Families worker, necn affiliate WPTZ reports.

“To lose one of our own in the course of that duty”, he said, “is shocking and heartbreaking”.