OVER THE EDGE IN BRATTLEBORO

There’s a mystical quality to this old hippie town hard by the Connecticut River, this genial sentry at the gateway to ski country, this mecca for woodworkers and copy writers, back-to-landers and Yuppies with Land Rovers.

So it was fitting that when something pushed Robert “Woody” Woodward over an emotional edge last month, the 37-year-old part-time mental health counselor and former Bozrah, Ct., resident living in nearby Bellows Falls chose to go to the All Souls Unitarian Church in West Brattleboro for help.

Artists and writers and other independent souls have long been drawn to Brattleboro, population 12,000, with its funky downtown catering to day-trippers and the serious outdoor types who find Neoprene heaven at Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters.

It’s also a hotbed of civic activism. In the past months, there have been passionate debates over funding for public schools, civil unions for gay couples, and security at the nearby Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Folks have always managed to reach agreement or at least move on after thoroughly airing all sides of the issue.

That is, until now — until Woodward was fatally shot by Brattleboro police inside the church on Dec. 2. Three patrolmen had responded to a 911 report of an unwanted person threatening himself with a knife. The fatal shooting, the first by police in Brattleboro, has staggered the town.

The official silence about the progress of the investigation of the two police officers, who shot the small, wiry Woodward seven times in front of stunned parishioners, has stymied the quest for answers, and left residents frustrated, angry, and, in some instances, fearful of the 24-member police department.

“It’s surreal, like missing a pivotal scene in a movie. I know the ending, but not why — why the police had to do this,” said Brattleboro resident Lisa Stumph, 26, a writer.

The case has polarized the town by pitting those who defend the police against those who have already condemned them.

Letters have streamed into the offices of the Brattleboro Reformer in numbers the newspaper has never seen before, except during the aftermath of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. Most of the writers question the police tactics.

Several churches, including All Souls, refused to hold a memorial service for Woodward because of the conflicting emotions in the congregations. The service that was ultimately held — at St. Michael’s Episcopal — drew hundreds.

“This has had as big an impact on the town as anything I’ve seen in 25 years,” said Paul Berch, the Brattleboro-based public defender for Windham County, “in part because there are so many unanswered questions.”

A Plea For Sanctuary

Just before 10 a.m. services were to begin Dec. 2, Woodward stood at a podium beside the altar. People did not know him.

“It was as though he was running and trying to catch his breath. He appeared agitated,” said Norman Hunt, an 85-year-old former lay minister.

Hunt said Woodward began talking about his volunteer work with the environment. Then he revealed his fears. He told congregants he was afraid of being hunted down and killed by the FBI.

“He asked us for sanctuary,” said Hunt.

Hunt was among those who were handed notes by Woodward. The missives, on ripped pieces of Woodward’s bank checks, ranged from requests for safe haven to asking Unitarians to establish cooperative car sales of environmentally sound vehicles.

Congregant Polly Wilson was concerned for Woodward.

“He was obviously very frightened,” said Wilson, who worked with mentally ill people in a women’s prison. “He said he was afraid of being tortured.”

At that point, Wilson said, the children were quietly taken out.

About 15 of the 60 congregants stayed. The sight of people leaving, unwilling to hear his pleas, antagonized Woodward.

“He got upset and said, ‘Don’t leave,”‘ Wilson said. “He took out a knife. He waved it back and forth. He brought the knife up to his eye and threatened to hurt himself.”

Several congregants successfully talked Woodward into sitting beside the altar and putting his knife away. Told he was scaring people, he apologized.

“I felt everything is under control,” said Wilson. “He didn’t threaten [congregants]. I was not scared.”

When the police arrived, Woodward jumped to his feet, Wilson recalled. “I felt this is the worse thing that could happen,” she said. “Here was his worst fear coming true.”

J.B.C. “Tommy” Thomas, a former Hartford resident, observed an officer peek around the corner.

“I said, ‘Get back, don’t let him see you,’ and the policeman complied. But Woodward saw him. He was up with the knife out again.”

Thomas recalls the officers armed with .40-caliber semi-automatic handguns entering the room. They told Woodward to put the knife down, noting they were there to help him, he said. Woodward refused, backing into the far corner near the Christmas tree. The knife was again pointing at his eye.

Thomas estimates an officer was five to six feet from Woodward when he first fired a low shot meant to disable. At that point, Thomas believes Woodward panicked and tried to leave the church. He said Woodward took a step forward and lowered the knife.

Two of the three officers opened fire.

The second shot was a “shot to the body mass” — a shot to kill, said Thomas. Woodward stumbled and fell in front of the podium, crumbling into a fetal position while still clutching his knife. Officers fired another four to five shots into him, Thomas said.

Woodward — crying out about global warming, political assassination and former Connecticut governor Ella Grasso — was handcuffed and disarmed. A doctor in the congregation tended to him until an ambulance took him to a nearby hospital. He died four hours later.

Wilson and Hunt corroborated much of Thomas’ account. Police have not released their own version of the incident.

“I would have made an effort to reason with the man,” Hunt said. “There was no attempt, doing it with words or any other way like Mace.”

Wilson, too, is outraged.

“This is not what our police policy should produce,” she said. “He didn’t threaten. I felt that whatever went on, this was not the way it should have been handled.”

‘Special, Not A Saint’

Robert Woodward was a bachelor, a vegan, a Buddhist, a staunch environmentalist who shunned social amenities. He was a climber and traveler, who thought nothing of taking three-day solitary hikes. He was more at home with teens he mentored than the adults he charmed with his intelligence and wit.

He had a mathematical mind, but the life-goal listed in his Norwich Free Academy yearbook was “not to become a computer programmer.”

He was also haunted by fears the government was out to kill him. He was prone to mood swings, showed signs of depression and despite a large network of friends over several states, was often lonely. In his last weeks, he was also increasingly worried about money. His last rent check bounced.

Paul Rodrigue, a social worker and friend, said Woodward could sometimes act “quirky” — the type of fellow who could show up at a pot luck dinner uninvited, without a pot. But Woodward could easily charm himself comfortably into the gathering, he said.

“His mood could go to sadness or depression at times,” said Rodrigue. “Woody was a great guy and a special guy in a lot of ways, but he was not a saint.”

Close friend Gregg Hoffman appears to be the last friend to see Woodward.

Woodward had attended a friend’s birthday party in Alstead, New Hampshire, early on the morning he died, then drove over to Hoffman’s.

“He looked pensive,” Hoffman said. “We talked for 45 minutes. We talked about our childhoods. He said nice things about his parents. … When he left he said he was going to the meditation center in Shelbourne Falls.”

Conflict Of Interest

As the town waits for local prosecutor Daniel Davis and the office of state Attorney General William Sorrell to complete separate reviews of the shooting — a process that could take at least two more months — several actions by the Brattleboro police department have caused additional anxiety.

The day after the shooting, acting Police Chief John Martin went on a previously scheduled, three-day vacation. And before he returned Officers Marshall Holbrook, Terrance Parker and William Davies to patrol, he announced that the investigation would show Parker and Holbrook, the two who fired, had acted reasonably.

Even those who support the police felt that Martin’s statement was premature.

Martin was unavailable for comment. He has maintained his confidence in the officers, and, in defense of his vacation absence, said he remained in contact with his department and town officials.

Shortly after Martin’s comment, Sorrell’s office ordered law officers to make no more public comments about the case until the inquiry is done.

But the gag order hasn’t quieted a growing outcry for Davis, the four-term Windham County state’s attorney, to withdraw from the investigation over questions about a conflict of interest.

“You have Windham County-based state police officers investigating Windham County-based town police officers. They’ll present their findings to the Windham County state’s attorney, who has unrelated pending cases that rely on the testimony of Brattleboro police officers,” said Berch, the Windham County public defender and a member of the Vermont ACLU.

Davis, himself a former Vermont state trooper, dismisses the notion of a conflict of interest.

He points out that he has prosecuted several police officers and troopers in the past for misconduct, sending one to jail. He said he knows the three officers involved in the Woodward case, but only on a professional basis. He added that anyone who is still uncomfortable with his role has the separate review by the attorney general to fall back on.

“Politically, the easiest thing for me to do would be to step aside,” Davis said. “Because, you know, no matter what the outcome, I’m going to alienate some segment of the Windham County voters. But I take my job and my responsibility seriously. I’m going to do what I was elected to do.”

‘Out Of Character’

Bozrah resident Joanne Woodward, who last saw her son Thanksgiving weekend, remembers him as always upbeat and compassionate. She considers his unstable behavior of Dec. 2 “extremely out of character.” She never recalls observing any signs of mental illness or drug or alcohol abuse.

“He collected friends. He had a lot of friends. He didn’t have a lot of possessions,” she said. “He didn’t believe in a lot of materialism. He helped us care for his grandparents. He entertained people at the convalescent home. He worked with mentally and physically handicapped people.”

Paul Woodward remembers his son as a “high strung and very intelligent” man, deeply concerned about the environment and the state of the world.

“He lived his beliefs,” the grieving father said.

He also never burdened his parents with his problems, financial or otherwise. Only after his death did the parents learn their son bounced his rent check.

Paul Woodward was hospitalized for a week with heart problems right after learning his son was shot dead.

“It’s getting to me emotionally. I can’t sleep at night,” he said. “I’m waiting for the grand jury. The Good Lord will give us some sort of justice. But I don’t know when, or where or how.”