NY teen charged with hate crime in shooting at police station near Baseball Hall of Fame

NY teen indicted on hate crime shooting charges

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — A grand jury has indicted a 16-year-old boy on hate crime charges in the shooting of a black high school classmate inside an upstate New York police station near baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Anthony Pacherille now faces charges of attempted murder and attempted assault as hate crimes. He remains hospitalized with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and is scheduled for arraignment May 7.

Authorities say Pacherille chased 16-year-old Wesley Lippitt from a Cooperstown park on April 2, shot him in the arm with his father’s .22-caliber rifle in the police station foyer, then shot himself. Pacherille is white.

Pacherille’s lawyer, James Hartmann, says he’s waiting for evidence from the prosecution, but he doesn’t believe the hate crime charges are valid.