5 charged in youth game brawl; man later died of heart event
Apr 22, 2023, 7:05 AM
ALBURGH, Vt. (AP) — Five adults have been charged with misdemeanor assault for a brawl that erupted at a middle school basketball game earlier this year, Vermont State Police said, but they won’t face any charges related to the death of one person involved in the fight who later had an acute cardiac event.
Police watched multiple videos of the Jan. 31 boys basketball game. They determined that a verbal dispute between groups of fans for the Alburgh and Albans City School escalated into a fight on the court.
Police said Friday they found “no evidence to support criminal charges related to the death” of 60-year-old Russell Giroux, who died more than two hours after the altercation at the Alburgh Community Education Center.
The medical examiner determined last month that Giroux’s cause of death was an “acute cardiac event following altercation in an individual with coronary artery atherosclerosis.” The manner of death will be listed as “undetermined.”
The five, who range in age from 24 to 43, face arraignment on May 11. It was not immediately known if they had lawyers.
After the brawl, school officials announced that spectators would not be allowed to attend home basketball games for the rest of the season at the Alburgh middle school.
Alburgh is a town of about 2,100 in northwestern Vermont. It is surrounded on three sides by Lake Champlain and the northern part of the community forms part of the border with Canada.
