Prosecutor, witness in social worker death, copes with guilt

Washington County State's Attorney Scott Williams stands near where Vermont social worker Lara Sobel was shot and killed outside a state office building in Barre on Friday Aug. 21, 2015. Williams, who took the rifle away from the alleged shooter and tended to Sobel, revisits the parking lot to grieve. Williams turned the prosecution of the case over to the office of the Vermont Attorney General. Suspect Jody Herring has pleaded not guilty in the killing of Sobel. She's due in court Aug. 25 to answer charges she also killed three relatives. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke) Washington County State's Attorney Scott Williams stands near where Vermont social worker Lara Sobel was shot and killed outside a state office building in Barre on Friday Aug. 21, 2015. Williams, who took the rifle away from the alleged shooter and tended to Sobel, revisits the parking lot to grieve. Williams turned the prosecution of the case over to the office of the Vermont Attorney General. Suspect Jody Herring has pleaded not guilty in the killing of Sobel. She's due in court Aug. 25 to answer charges she also killed three relatives. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)

By Associated Press August 23, 2015 3 min read

BARRE, Vt. (AP) – The prosecutor is drawn time and again to the parking lot where flowers and candles now mark where he tried to save a social worker’s life. Going back, he says, helps him cope with the guilt he feels because he lived and she didn’t.

Scott Williams, who grabbed a rifle away from a woman police say was enraged over losing custody of her 9-year-old daughter, returns to where Lara Sobel died to struggle with his feelings, and to cry.

“I do that when there’s nobody else around and I can just have a couple of minutes,” he told The Associated Press.

Williams, a Vermont state’s attorney, knew Sobel and her alleged killer, Jody Herring – a woman accused also in the deaths of three family members police believe she blamed for reporting her to social services.

He returns to the parking lot where Sobel died two weeks ago to cope with the emotions he can’t shake – even though he knows he couldn’t have done any more than he did.