Shattering a Fragile Dream

By Janice Castro

Morningside Park is a kind of uneasy border between two worlds in northern & Manhattan. On the highlands to the west, atop Morningside Heights, are Columbia University, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and graying, middle-class residential neighborhoods. In the valley to the east stretches Harlem. Separating them are the steep green slopes of the park, a wooded no- man's-land that even policemen hesitate to enter. It was on the eastern edge of the park one rainy night last month that Edmund Perry, 17, was shot to death during an alleged attack on a young policeman. The younger of two sons of a black working-class Harlem family, Perry had just graduated with honors from exclusive, mostly white Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, which he attended on a scholarship, and was set to enter Stanford University in the fall.

Edmund Perry was fatally wounded by a white New York police officer, Lee Van Houten, 24, whose two-year record on the force was unblemished. Last week amid a storm of community outrage and accusations of police misconduct and racism, a Manhattan grand jury cleared Van Houten of any wrongdoing. The panel also charged Perry's older brother, Jonah, 19, a second-year engineering student at Cornell University, with assault and attempted robbery in the scuffle with Van Houten that resulted in Edmund's death. Neither Edmund nor Jonah, who had also gone to a tony prep school (Westminster in Simsbury, Conn.), had ever been in trouble with the law. Those who defended the innocence of the Perry brothers said there seemed no motivation for such an uncharacteristic and violent act.

That issue and countless other questions may never be answered to anyone's satisfaction. But according to police, 23 witnesses have come forward to support Van Houten's version of events. A plainclothes policeman, Van Houten was patrolling the perimeter of the park that night, hoping to catch some of the thieves who had been breaking into the cars of doctors from nearby St. Luke's hospital. As Van Houten recounts it, he approached the hospital on the dark side of the street and was attacked from behind by Edmund Perry and an accomplice, who threw him to the ground and beat him nearly unconscious. As his assailants rifled his pockets shouting "Give it up!" (a demand for his money), Van Houten pulled his service revolver and fired three shots. One of them struck Edmund Perry in the abdomen. The second assailant, whom Van Houten never clearly saw, fled when Edmund fell.

In the past the Perry family seemed to have done everything right. Edmund, ^ whose hard-working mother Veronica taught in a local Headstart program and served on the community school board, had wanted to become a doctor, but was also considering a career in politics. He had planned to spend the summer working at a Wall Street investment house before heading for Stanford. To teachers, neighbors and friends of the family, the Perry brothers stood as prime examples of what the black community's youth could achieve. "Everybody looked up to Jonah and Edmund," Sheila Wright, a neighbor, told the New York Times. "They were models for the other kids." Said a former teacher at Edmund's funeral: "Edmund's life was a symbol of success to all those who had encouraged, supported, coached and applauded as he began his long climb up the rough side of the mountain."

Edmund's classmates at Exeter recalled him as a disciplined youth who believed that accomplished blacks had a special responsibility to prove racist stereotypes false. Said Andre Francois, an Exeter friend, in an interview with the Times: "He believed in his ability to show that we are something in a society that has given us an inferior image."

Perry did well at the demanding school, earning honors status. He also participated in the School Year Abroad program, spending his junior year in Spain. Edward Sainatti, the resident director of the program, recalled in an interview with the Times that Edmund was "honest and forthright," but seemed to have "a chip on his shoulder." Edmund's mixed feelings about the new world opening before him were captured in the farewell note to Exeter that he wrote in his senior yearbook: "It's a pity that we part on less than a friendly basis," he wrote. "Work to adjust yourself to a changing world, as will I."

Edmund's friends may never know what happened on the night of Officer Van Houten's mugging. But police now say that witnesses have offered an explanation for the attempted robbery. According to the police, the crime was committed on impulse. Earlier that evening, the witnesses say, Edmund and Jonah had played basketball in a local school-yard, betting the price of a movie on the outcome. As it turned out, neither brother had any money. Police officials say that witnesses overheard the brothers planning a spur-of-the- moment robbery. An autopsy later showed traces of marijuana in Edmund's blood, leading some to wonder whether his judgment that night was impaired. It was only a short hike from the schoolyard to the park. Edmund and Jonah were both over 6 ft. tall. If they were looking for an easy mark, the 5-ft. 9-in. Van Houten, who was dressed casually in jeans and a sweatshirt, must have looked the part. Whatever it was that brought Edmund Perry to the park that night, it proved fatal. Witnesses, say the police, recall Jonah running home shortly after the attack occurred, shouting, "We got a D.T.!," a slang term for detective.

While doctors at St. Luke's tried to save Edmund's life, Jonah arrived at the hospital with his mother. He told police that he had not been with Edmund in the park but had learned of his brother's shooting via a neighborhood drug dealer who had heard it on the street. Offering at first to help police locate the dealer, Jonah changed his mind on the advice of a family lawyer and, further, declined to testify on his own behalf before the grand jury last week.