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On a spring day, with the sunlight reflecting off Lake Otsego, the daffodils along Main Street waving in a breeze and baseball tourists shuffling reverentially toward the Hall of Fame, Cooperstown seems a place where nothing bad could ever happen.

But on Good Friday afternoon, while parishioners of St. Mary's Church were recalling the death of Jesus, one teenaged Catholic, Anthony Pacherille, allegedly confronted three peers in a downtown park with a rifle, chased one into a police station and shot the boy, then himself.

After one of the two shots ripped through the arm of the victim, Wesley Lippitt, Anthony shot himself in the head.

The bullet exited between his eyes without injuring his brain. He is being held in the hospital. Wesley recovered and has since returned to school.

Otsego County district attorney John M. Muehl said his office investigated Anthony's past for evidence of racial bias. The evidence was presented to a grand jury and, on April 30, the panel indicted Anthony on four counts: second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime; first- degree attempted assault as a hate crime; second-degree assault as a hate crime and first-degree criminal use of a firearm. Anthony is white. Wesley is black, and was adopted by white parents.

Rev. John P. Rosson, Anthony's pastor at St. Mary's Church in Cooperstown, denied any evidence of bias in the boy's past. He is to be arraigned May 7.

Search for answers
Both are 16-year-old students at Cooperstown Central High School. Both boys' faith communities and their village of 2,000 residents are wondering why the tragedy occurred as they console one another and seek to avert the problems that may have provoked the attack.

"The immediate reaction was shock: shock that it happened at all, shock that it happened in Cooperstown, shock at the way it happened," said Anthony Casale, a former state assemblyman who now runs a consulting firm in Cooperstown.

Voicing a common sentiment, he added: "Everybody's a victim here and everybody needs help."

Priest's role
Father Rosson has spent much of his time since the incident visiting Anthony and talking with the family and congregants, and asking himself one question: "What did I miss?"

During a visit from The Evangelist, he sat in his rectory office alternating between asking a vendor for price quotes, talking to a volunteer about the timing of a collection and checking in with Anthony's father, Anthony "Tony" Pacherille.

The Pacherilles have been members of the parish for most of the past decade. Mr. Pacherville, a bankruptcy attorney, sits on the parish council; Anthony, a regular at Mass, was confirmed last year.

"At the service," recalled Father Rosson, "Bishop Hubbard asked him, 'What do you want to do with your life?' And Anthony replied, 'I'm thinking of becoming a priest.'"

The pastor and others describe the teen as quiet, sensitive, intelligent and possessed of a dry wit. Anthony worked in a baseball shop downtown, rode his bike everywhere, played junior varsity football and "was just coming into his own," said Father Rosson.

Holy Week interrupted
That the shooting occurred during Holy Week increased its impact. Anthony had attended services Thursday night but did not attend the next day, though his parents did, recalled Father Rosson.

"Friday, at the very hour we were celebrating the Lord's death, this [incident] happened," said Father Rosson.

The shooting was the second time police interrupted Good Friday's services with bad news: Two years ago, they came to inform a family that their son had died in a car accident.

"It was a very intense Easter," Father Rosson recalled.

The Lippitts' pastor at Fly Creek United Methodist Church, Rev. Thomas Pullyblank, declined to discuss the case and asked that the family's privacy be respected.

Previously, in an interview with the Utica Observer-Dispatch, Wesley's mother, Tracey Lippitt, sympathized with Pacherille and his family but added that the community needs to "face the darkness" in order to heal.

She also reported that Wesley had returned to school and is doing well thanks to widespread support.

Theories abound for the reasons behind the crime, but few have gained serious traction. There have been reports from classmates that the two boys traded racial or ethnic insults.

While Cooperstown is overwhelmingly white, residents have dismissed claims of racism and note a large number of interracial adoptions. Others say Anthony was long teased for his Italian background.

Status of case
After the shooting, the school provided counseling for students. More recently, Cooperstown school officials and families have discussed reports of and policies on bullying and harassment.

Anthony's mental status and motivation remain at the center of the case. "I'm no psychiatrist, but something in Anthony seems to have just snapped," said Father Rosson. He said the teen had expressed sorrow and remorse.

Mr. Muehl said that Anthony remains at Bassett Hospital, where he has received a psychiatric evaluation.

While Cooperstown appears to have returned to its normal routine, residents and St. Mary's parishioners are still recovering from the village's first shooting since 1961.

Sitting on a bench downtown, a local woman said the case involved "two good, wonderful families" and that it was bringing the community together: "I'm glad that they're discussing bullying in the school."

Community aid
Father Rosson said the community was showing support for both families and for their sons. When the Pacherille family returned to Mass last Sunday, he added, "everybody lined up to support them, give them food they had prepared."

Relationships crisscross church and town. St. Mary's counts both past and present mayors as parishioners, as well as a surgeon who operated on Anthony.

Father Rosson and the Tippitts' pastor are colleagues; on Palm Sunday, St. Mary's and four local Protestant churches held a joint public procession and blessing of palms.

The relative calm is only interrupted, Mr. Muehl said, by new developments in the case. Mr. Casale, who knew Anthony from the baseball store and St. Mary's, urged that justice involve mercy.

"I hope that there's enough flexibility and compassion in the justice system," he said, "that while there's punishment, there's also rehabilitation."

(05/06/10) [[In-content Ad]]

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