10/11/16 Williston, Vt – Five Dead Teens, a Stolen Police Car and the ‘Most Horrific’ Crash in Decades

The first 911 call came at 11:43 p.m. Saturday, a report from a concerned motorist about a Toyota truck barreling down Interstate 89 on the wrong side of the road.

More calls followed, and more after that.

Vermont state and local police dispatched cruisers, hoping to intercept the erratic driver, to stop the truck before a crash did.

They drove alongside motorists who couldn’t possibly know the danger speeding toward them and carloads of people they had no way of warning.

Among them was a Volkswagen Jetta carrying five teenagers barely old enough to drive.

Minutes later, at 11:53 p.m., police received another 911 call.

This time, it was about a crash.

The first police officer on scene in Williston found two crumpled vehicles in the road — a Toyota truck and a Volkswagen Jetta. The Jetta was engulfed in flames.

In a desperate attempt to save the teenagers trapped inside, the officer grabbed a fire extinguisher and rushed toward the blaze, according to the Vermont State Police. He pulled one young girl from the car and tried to suppress the flames.

Then he watched this scene in disbelief: His police cruiser — the red and blue emergency lights still activated — was speeding away from the wreckage. Behind the wheel sat a man, later identified as Steven D. Bourgoin, 36, the apparent owner of the wrong way truck.

By the night’s end, Bourgoin had not only hijacked the officer’s car, but dodged police custody while fleeing the scene, hitting at least seven other cars while driving the wrong way along Interstate 89, according to authorities.

His spree ended only when he crashed the police cruiser for a final time, police said, ejecting himself from the car before it, too, burst into flames.

He was rushed to the hospital alongside five other people, police said, who are reported to be in stable condition.

All five teenagers — friends since childhood on their way home from a concert — were killed.

Vermont State Police identified the victims as Mary Harris, 16, and Cyrus Zschau, 16, of Moretown; Liam Hale, 16, and Janie Cozzi, 15, of Fayston; and Eli Brookens, 16, of Waterbury.

By the night’s end, Bourgoin had not only hijacked the officer’s car, but dodged police custody while fleeing the scene, hitting at least seven other cars while driving the wrong way along Interstate 89, according to authorities.

His spree ended only when he crashed the police cruiser for a final time, police said, ejecting himself from the car before it, too, burst into flames.

He was rushed to the hospital alongside five other people, police said, who are reported to be in stable condition.

All five teenagers — friends since childhood on their way home from a concert — were killed.

Vermont State Police identified the victims as Mary Harris, 16, and Cyrus Zschau, 16, of Moretown; Liam Hale, 16, and Janie Cozzi, 15, of Fayston; and Eli Brookens, 16, of Waterbury.