4 charged in citywide vandalism case. Police say there were more than 80 victims.

People across Springfield were waking up to shattered glass.

Car windows. Glass front doors. Windshields.

The sign in front of a Springfield church was targeted.

A few homes were hit multiple times. Some cars were egged.

Four suspects eventually emerged, police say, and they concocted cockamamie alibis, pointed fingers and ultimately implicated each other in causing thousands of dollars of damage.

One suspect even recorded conversations with the others, police say, then turned the tapes over to investigators.

But for about a month and a half last summer, there were no suspects.

Dozens of residents had been reporting incidents of strikingly similar vandalism. Much of the vandalism involved either a BB gun or a pellet gun.

Then a few breaks came.

A compressed air canister — the type used in many BB and pellet guns — was left outside a vandalized home, surveillance footage captured part of a license plate, and a tipster told police about two roommates who had allegedly bragged about committing vandalism in their own neighborhood.

A detective eventually identified four suspects and worked backward to connect the group to about $18,000 in damage that was spread across more than 70 addresses and more than 80 victims.

The suspected vandals — 19-year-old Joseph Gunsolus, 21-year-old Tanner Good, 21-year-old Jacob Baker-Parnell and 18-year-old Daryan Wininger — were charged this month with three counts of first-degree property damage, a felony.

The vandalism is described in an unusually lengthy probable cause statement, which said the investigation started heating up in early September.

That's when police visited Gunsolus and Wininger, the two roommates who had supposedly bragged about vandalism.

The statement said the duo initially denied any wrongdoing, saying their airsoft guns, toys that fire tiny brightly colored plastic pellets, weren't powerful enough to break windows.

But soon after police left, the statement said, Gunsolus and Wininger reached out to police to change their story.

Yes, they did do some vandalism, the statement said, but the duo said it was only because they had been "jumped" by several unknown black men and they shot up an area where the unknown men might live.

The statement said Gunsolus and Wininger then implicated Jacob Baker-Parnell.

A few days after being questioned by police, the statement said, Wininger and Gunsolus voluntarily came to the police station and copped to much more vandalism.

They downplayed their own roles, the statement said, and pinned much of the vandalism on Baker-Parnell and a fourth man, Tanner Good.

Wininger allegedly told police about shooting at the sign of Oak Grove Church, about Baker-Parnell and Good egging cars, and about two or three separate occasions when they shot at the home of Wininger’s aunt.

Gunsolus allegedly told police how the other three vandals would drive through neighborhoods and point out car windows they had broken, bragging.

When an officer started asking Gunsolus about other instances of vandalism, the statement said Gunsolus replied: “Yeah, that’s our group.”

After that interview, the two new suspects — Good and Baker-Parnell — reached out to police with their own explanation.

Good allegedly told police they would find CO2 guns in his truck and that the guns were used to shoot “varmints” in Christian County.

The four suspects met on Sept. 6 to “get their story straight,” the statement said.

Gunsolus, with Wininger in on the plan, recorded the conversation, the statement said, and later turned the tape over to police.

According to the statement, Baker-Parnell and Good crafted a story about how they had been in Oklahoma for the past two weeks, fishing and doing side jobs.

And if their story didn’t convince police, they apparently had another plan.

“No one’s going to go to jail for this stupid s---,” Baker-Parnell allegedly said. “Put it this way, if they tell us that they’re taking us to jail, me and Tanner (Good) are f---ing fighting the lot of them! Just to get out of that God d--- place.”

According to the statement, Wininger asked Baker-Parnell if he thought he could realistically fight the police.

The statement said Baker-Parnell indicated he could and that all it took is to “cut one throat” or “grab one gun.”

Then Good chimed in.

“I only got to do enough to get out the f---ing door,” Good allegedly said, adding that he would “superman punch the b---- by the door and head straight out.”

A “superman punch” is a mixed-martial arts move in which a person punches while jumping in the air.

Near the end of the recorded conversation, the four suspects went over their alibis again, the statement said, and specifically talked about having egged cars.

If the police investigation focused on egging, the group said they would admit to it, the statement said.

“I’m a college guy,” Good allegedly said. “I have fun, my bad.”

According to the statement, Baker-Parnell initially stuck to this script when interrogated by police, but then contradicted himself and admitted to numerous acts of vandalism.

When Good was interviewed by police, the statement said he tried to pin much of the vandalism on Wininger.

After the interviews, the statement said police searched Baker-Parnell’s truck, finding three CO2 guns, seven unused air cartridges, lead pellets and two partially full containers that once held 2,400 BBs each.

Baker-Parnell and Good were not aware that they had been caught on tape admitting to vandalism, the statement said, and Baker-Parnell told Gunsolus he wanted to talk.

Again, the statement said, Gunsolus recorded the conversation while Baker-Parnell described a new plan.

If the detective asked about the vandalism, Baker-Parnell allegedly said, they all “had a part in it,” but Wininger was the main culprit.

“Either that or we’re all going to jail,” Baker-Parnell allegedly said. “(Wininger’s) not going to jail, because, if he tells him what I told him he will not go to jail. I can promise him that … the minimum that we’re all looking at is probation.”

Wyll Boren lives on one of the streets allegedly targeted by the group. Boren said the entire neighborhood was "extremely leery" for about two weeks.

When asked about the possibility of the four suspects getting probation if convicted, Boren emphatically said they need more than "a slap on the wrist."

"These little preppy boys are gonna get a lesson, and they're gonna get a reality check that's not gonna bounce," Boren said. "This is not just a prank."

Another woman on the street, Teresa Ballance, said she was scared when she saw a letter from prosecutors this week, but then relieved when she realized it was to tell her that four suspects had been charged in the summer vandalism.

Ballance said both her car and her parent's car had a window shot out, and each cost more than $100 to fix.

"Everybody was pissed. I mean, who wouldn't be?" Ballance said. "It's like, 'Oh, thanks — money I don't have.'"

Ballance said she's happy to see someone's being held accountable.

The detective who worked the case, Daniel Rankey, received a special commendation from the police department Friday.