By Tom Grace and Michelle Miller
Cooperstown News Bureau
COOPERSTOWN _ An apparent hate crime rocked Cooperstown on Good Friday as a white teenage boy, Anthony Pacherille, allegedly chased a black teenage boy, Wesley Lippitt, past the National Baseball Hall of Fame, across busy Main Street and down Fair Street, shooting at him with a .22 rifle.
Lippitt ran into the building that houses the Cooperstown Police Department at the corner of Fair and Main streets and tried to hide in the foyer.
Pacherille allegedly followed him into the building and opened fire, hitting Lippitt in the arm with one shot, sending another bullet ripping through the police station, before shooting himself in the chin at 3:08 p.m.
Police and village officials declined to identify the shooter or victim, but the two 16-year-olds, who have attended class together, were identified by classmates at Cooperstown High School.
Cooperstown Police Chief Diana Nicols said Officer James Cox was on duty at the time. When Cox heard shots, he bolted out of the police office, saw Lippitt, and not knowing who shot whom, ordered him to stay down.
Gun drawn, Cox saw Pacherille in the foyer.
``He ordered the shooter to drop his gun,'' Nicols said.
Pacherille backed out the Fair Street door, where people were gathering outside. "Then the shooter shot himself,'' in the chin with the rifle, she said.
An official who declined to be identified said that when Pacherille was asked why he had shot Lippitt, he said he hated black people.
Cox secured the gun, called for help and the boys were rushed by the Cooperstown Emergency Squad to Bassett Heathcare, three blocks away. Their injuries are not life-threatening, said Nicols. A bullet apparently went through Lippitt's arm, and Pacherille was in surgery to have a bullet removed Friday night, an official said.
Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl said he is considering a charge of second-degree murder against the shooter, who will be tried as an adult. Muehl explained that the possible hate-crime aspect of the shooting could mean the shooter would face a greater charge than attempted murder.
