Police: Killing Of 2 Young Men Was Drug-Related

HAMLIN, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities said drugs were involved in the slayings this month of two young men found in a burning car, a double homicide that has shocked the small western New York communities where the victims and the man suspected of killing them grew up.

Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter said Thursday night that Mason Earle, 19, of Hamlin, told police that he shot 18-year-old Bruce Kane, of the town of Sweden, and 20-year-old Alexander Burrow, of Clarkson. Their bodies were found Sept. 10 in the town of Hamlin, on Lake Ontario 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Rochester. Authorities said both men had been shot.

Earle confessed to the slayings after he was arrested outside his home Thursday, Baxter said. The sheriff said the killings involved marijuana but provided no additional details. He said Earle was an acquaintance of the victims.

Earle pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder charges at his arraignment Thursday night. He was being held in the county jail without bail. Prosecutors said Friday that he'll be assigned a lawyer.

The victim's bodies were found in a burning car parked behind a warehouse in a section of town where small businesses and other buildings are clustered. The slayings stunned residents of the rural towns just west of Rochester. Kane and Burrow were both swimmers on the Brockport High School team. Kane graduated in June. Burrow graduated in 2016 and was attending the University at Buffalo.

"Horrific crime, and it rocks a small town like Hamlin," Baxter said. "Everybody knows everybody, everybody's acquainted."