Father of teen gun suspect pleads guilty
A village of Saugerties man admitted in court Wednesday that he removed guns from his home and hid them at his place of business to prevent authorities from finding them when they were investigating his son, according to the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office.
Bruce Chargois, 59, of 5 Sawyerkill Terrace, pleaded guilty in Ulster County Court to the felony of tampering with physical evidence, the prosecutor’s office said. It said Chargois admitted he was trying to stop law-enforcement officers from discovering weapons made by Connor Chargois, 19, during their investigation of the teen.
Connor Chargois, also of 5 Sawyerkill Terrace, Saugerties, pleaded guilty on Friday, Nov. 30, to the felony of criminal possession of a weapon.
The father and son were arrested Feb. 27, 2018, after police received tips about social media posts by Connor Chargois, a Saugerties High School student at the time, that praised Columbine High School killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Harris and Klebold killed 13 people and wounded 24 others at the Littleton, Colo., school in April 1999 before taking their own lives. The massacre happened four months before Connor Chargois was born.
Saugerties police said they traced the online posts to Connor Chargois with assistance from the District Attorney’s Office and state police and that the teen later admitted writing them.
“I envy Eric and Dylan,” one of the posts said, according to police. “It must’ve been so f—ing fun. They had the right f—ing idea. I’m so full of rage. … Nothing f—ing matters anymore.”
Police said another post by Connor Chargois stated: “I feel as though I’m not the type of person you’d want to call your friend, but I firmly believe that you do want to call me your enemy. Just remember: when the sh-t hits the fan, there won’t be any time for mercy.”
Police began investigating Connor Chargois’ postings on Feb. 21, exactly one week after 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Shortly after that massacre, Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said he favored teachers carrying guns in schools.
Bruce and Connor Chargois initially denied owning firearms and said there were no weapons in their house. But Bruce Chargois later admitted to investigators there had been firearms in the home and he removed them immediately after his first interview by investigators, police said at the time.
The father then took police to his place of business on Glasco Turnpike in Saugerties and showed them five hidden firearms, police said. The weapons included a fully automatic 9mm Uzi and an AR-15 assault rifle, police said.
A subsequent search by Saugerties police and federal agents found ammunition of varying calibers, homemade knives, machine-fabricated gun parts, a prototype of a firearm that Connor Chargois admitted he had been manufacturing, and a number of completed homemade firearms with both .22- and 99mm-caliber capacities.
Bruce Chargois is to be sentenced by Ulster County Judge Donald Williams on Feb. 14.