1) Robert "Woody" Woodward ~ Fatal Police Shooting - witness political assassinations...

[blavatsky3]

1) Robert "Woody" Woodward ~ Fatal Police Shooting
2) 2001 to be second hottest year since records began: UN
3) Does the president have the authority to can the ABM?

Editor's Notes:

For the past few weeks, my work for sustainable energy development and family-related health matters, brought me to southern California. One of the highlights of this trip was in spending real time with Carol Rosin and Jon Cypher at their home and offices for the Institute for Cooperation in Space in Ventura, CA. I met them after a solo walk by the ocean where I watched three pilot whales weave in the Pacific only about 30 yards from shore. Nature reigns in such beauty.

Though funding for the sustainable energy work was missing, it was a good trip, especially to help my mom her during a time when she needed me. And on the airplane on the ride home, after nine months of slowly reading, absorbing, feeling, the revelations in the biography of Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas, written in the 1930's by Mari Sandoz.

Shaken a bit, which I didn't realize how little, until on the way at Whole Foods market, I learned what happened to my friend, Woody, just before I departed my journey. on December 2nd, 2001, my friend, Robert "Woody" Woodward, was shot dead by police while seeking political asylum in a Church in Brattleboro, Vermont!

I couldn't help feel but some connection with Woody; and his connection with Crazy Horse, who when arrested and betrayed, struggled with a knife and slain dead.

I attended the memorial service, with a candlelight vigil through town, Brattleboro, Vermont, on December 19 2001. The assembly of friends and community that came to that service demonstrated that Woody was not a dangerous person, and people grieved at their loss of a dear friend and family loved one. But will the truth be revealed, what really happened?

Why would the police, after only one minute, open fire, shooting him
seven times, handcuff him, and deny him immediate medical assistance?

I had an opportunity to address those at the memorial service. I encouraged anyone who could disclose truth on this case to step forward, to take the advice from Daniel Sheehan, legal counsel for the Pentagon Papers, the Iran-Contra, Three Mile Island, and Karen Silkwood cases: to go public as the best strategy and defense to stand up against injustice. I shared these thoughts, and the following poem to a light beyond darkness.

Death

The unknown journey tells us of lives past,
What's behind the sky and how long we can last.

Blight and perish, then return Creation to your chore never ending,
Though it appears dim sometimes because the tunnel winds,
But beyond the next bend the illumined mind might find a permeating ray.

O' divine mystery, naked before my thoughts,
Such grandeur and majesty, am I truly worthy?

Embracing life, colors blend, light filters through,
I am what I am.
The only death that came to be was to that of mystery,
As life has a way of renewing and cleansing,
And with the purpose of growth, the spirit will always be unending.


1) Fatal Police Shooting Shocks Church - Was Woody Assasinated?

- - Updated Archive Links at end of article!

Fatal Police Shooting Shocks Church
By DAVID GRAM, Associated Press Writer
December 5, 2001

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) - He went before the congregation just as the service was to begin. Weeping, he asked for help, for "political sanctuary."

But All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church - which has long welcomed the downtrodden and the mentally ill - couldn't offer sanctuary to Robert A. Woodward on Sunday.

Gently asked to take a seat or leave, Woodward pulled a knife. Police were called. After making what authorities called threatening moves with the blade, he was gunned down at the altar and died at a hospital.

The police shooting in a church known for its peace activism left the congregation in shock. And it left many of the roughly 10,000 residents of a community known for its left-leaning politics, where a faded "Question Authority" bumper sticker is not an uncommon sight, doing just that. People wanted to know why the officers fired seven shots with their semiautomatic pistols rather than just one, or why they didn't subdue Woodward with the pepper spray they carry, or just tackle him.

"It appears as though there will have to be a high burden on those who pulled the trigger to show that there were no other means to deal with this situation," said Benson D. Scotch, director of the Vermont office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

State authorities are investigating the shooting to determine whether it was justified.

It remained a mystery why the 37-year-old man would drive 25 miles from his apartment in Bellows Falls to seek help in a church hidden from the road on a pine-topped knoll - a church where he was a complete stranger.

Woodward's mother, Joanne Woodward of Bozrah, Conn., told the Brattleboro Reformer that her son had no history of mental problems. And investigators said it appeared he did not have a criminal record.

Woodward, who was single and had no children, worked most recently with foster children at a community mental health organization in Vermont, his mother said.

"I would just like to stress for you that he was a very peaceful person," she said. "He never would have injured anyone else. He was a loving, caring person and very gentle."

The West Village Meeting House, a 1970s chalet-style building with brown-stained shingles, is home to both the Unitarian Universalist church and to a Jewish congregation.

Investigators said it was clear when Woodward went into the church that he wanted to be heard. The chief source of the agitation that led to Woodward's shooting appeared to be that members of the congregation were getting up to leave.

Woodward handed out blank checks with statements written on the backs of them, State's Attorney Dan Davis said. Davis would not reveal their contents.

As Woodward grew more agitated, someone announced it was time for Sunday school, and the 15 children among the roughly 70 people in the church were escorted out to the parking lot. A congregation member used a cell phone to call police.

A church member began talking with Woodward and placed some cellular phone calls for him. Woodward put his knife away. But when someone suggested that the 15 or 20 members of the congregation who remained leave, Woodward grew angry and pulled out his knife again. Davis said it was a folding knife, with a blade 4 to 5 inches long.

"There was a movement with the knife itself and movements made by Mr. Woodward that the officers perceived as a threat to themselves and-or the congregation," Davis said on Monday.

Two officers opened fire; a third officer did not shoot.

Norman Hunt, an 85-year-old member of the congregation, said that Woodward did not verbally threaten anyone other than himself.

"He did tell us he was afraid of the police and afraid if they caught him they'd kill him," Hunt said. "He held a small pocketknife and held it against his right eye and said that rather than being captured he'd kill himself."

For another posting of this article and others, see:
Woodward shouted about "political assassinations" and "global warming"

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

From the website --- "Justice for Woody"

Was Woody Assasinated?

Woody seemed to think so. On the voicemail message from the call that Woody placed to his close friends one can hear
Woody's voice saying "Political assassination, political assassination, political assassination ... global warming," repeatedly, and "I love you, I love you: help, help, help me, help me" between moans in which one can hear immense agony.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Flyby News Archives Updated Links:

August 14, 2006 - Item 2
Justice for Woody?

This above issue includes an article on Robert Woodward's family settlement to drop the case of my friend, Woody, who was shot dead less than 2 months following 9/11/01, while seeking political asylum in a Church one minute after police entered the Church and riddled him with seven bullets and denied emergency medical attention.

September 1, 2005 - Item 2
Justice for Woody and family within a year?

August 27, 2005 - Item 3
Justice for Woody Remains Open

August 19, 2005 - Item 5
Robert Woodward's family seeks justice

May 10, 2004 - Item 3
Woody Case Hearing Report

May 1, 2004 - Item 3
Dangerous Time for Justice in "Woody" Police-Shooting Case

December 8, 2003 - Item 4
Woodward Shooting: Evidence of a Dean Conspiracy?

November 28, 2003 - Item 4
Commemoration of the second anniversary of the death of Robert "Woody" Woodward to be held on December 2, 2003

One-Year Anniversary Since the Shooting -- December 2, 2002 - Item 1
Justice eyes Woodward FBI probe

March 20, 2002 - Item 3
The sound of silence
Article by Kathryn Casa, Managing Editor of the Brattleboro Reformer (March 13, 2002)

February 3, 2002 - Item 4
Family Pursues Quest for Truth in Woodward Shooting
Press Release and link for the legal motion

December 29, 2001 - Item 3
Deadly Silence, Questions Remain about Church Shooting of Woody
Why are the policemen who shot Woody still on duty?

Robert "Woody" Woodward was gunned down by Police Officers on December 2, 2001
in the All Soul's Unitarian Church in Brattleboro, Vermont, while requesting political asylum.


Woody committed no crime, yet he was shot seven times, and medical care, which might have saved Woody's life, was delayed. For the second anniversary of the tragic events, a group of friends of Woody and concerned citizens conducted a Silent March to call for the end of excessive use of police force, support truth, justice, and accountability for such actions, and most of all, the event will pay tribute to Woody's life of compassion and social caring. At a press conference after the vigil, a spokesperson for the Justice for Woody organaization released a report that concluded: "..By refusing to pursue the evidence they possessed that Woodward was shot while down and then denied first aid, and instead putting forth a fraudulent homicide investigation, Governor Dean and William Sorrell conspired to obstruct the lawful application of justice in the matter of the police shooting of Robert Woodward."

For more information visit the web site:

JusticeForWoody.net


2) 2001 to be second hottest year since records began: UN

GENEVA (AFP) Dec 18, 2001

The average temperature of the world's surface will have been higher in 2001 than in any other year except 1988, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Tuesday, quoting provisional estimates based on data spanning a century and a half.

WMO Deputy Director-General Michel Jarraud said he believed the high average temperature, which was expected to be 0.42 of a degree Celsiusof a degree Fahrenheit) above the world average for the 30 years from 1961 to 1990, was due to so-called "global warming."

He added that the last decade of the 20th century, including the year 2000, had seen nine of the 10 hottest years, in terms of world averages, since reliable records began back in 1860.

During the whole of the 20th century, average world temperatures rose by 0.6 of a degree Celsius (1.08 of a degree Fahrenheit), with much of the rise concentrated in the last quarter century after 1976.

Jarraud said final figures for 2001 would be released next year.

Many scientists believe the earth is gradually heating up due to the industrial activities of man, mainly the production of vast quantities of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

They believe the carbon dioxide leads to the creation of a heat trap, which prevents excess energy from escaping from the atmosphere, thereby heating up the globe. The phenomenon has been dubbed "global warming."

All rights reserved. © 2000 Agence France-Presse.

For the originally posted story, with photos and links, see
http://spacedaily.com/news/011218170359.mcuy7wxv.html



3) Does the president have the authority to can the ABM?


August 29, 2001- NY TIMES op-ed
By BRUCE ACKERMAN- professor of constitutional law at Yale

NEW HAVEN -- President Bush has told the Russians that he will withdraw from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which gives both countries the right to terminate on six months' notice. But does the president have the constitutional authority to exercise this power without first obtaining Congressional consent?

Presidents don't have the power to enter into treaties unilaterally. This requires the consent of two-thirds of the Senate, and once a treaty enters into force, the Constitution makes it part of the "supreme law of the land" — just like a statute.

Presidents can't terminate statutes they don't like. They must persuade both houses of Congress to join in a repeal. Should the termination of treaties operate any differently?

The question first came up in 1798. As war intensified in Europe, America found itself in an entangling alliance with the French under treaties made during our own revolution. But President John Adams did not terminate these treaties unilaterally. He signed an act of Congress to "Declare the Treaties Heretofore Concluded with France No Longer Obligatory on the United States."

The next case was in 1846. As the country struggled to define its northern boundary with Canada, President James Polk specifically asked Congress for authority to withdraw from the Oregon Territory Treaty with Great Britain, and Congress obliged with a joint resolution. Cooperation of the legislative and executive branches remained the norm, despite some exceptions, during the next 125 years.

The big change occurred in 1978, when Jimmy Carter unilaterally terminated our mutual defense treaty with Taiwan. Senator Barry Goldwater responded with a lawsuit, asking the Supreme Court to maintain the traditional system of checks and balances. The court declined to make a decision on the merits of the case. In an opinion by Justice William Rehnquist, four justices called the issue a political question inappropriate for judicial resolution. Two others refused to go this far but joined the majority for other reasons. So by a vote of 6 to 3, the court dismissed the case.

Seven new justices have since joined the court, and there is no predicting how a new case would turn out. Only one thing is clear. In dismissing Senator Goldwater's complaint, the court did not endorse the doctrine of presidential unilateralism. Justice Rehnquist expressly left the matter for resolution "by the executive and legislative branches." The ball is now in Congress's court. How should it respond?

First and foremost, by recognizing the seriousness of this matter. If President Bush is allowed to terminate the ABM treaty, what is to stop future presidents from unilaterally taking America out of NATO or the United Nations?

The question is not whether such steps are wise, but how democratically they should be taken. America does not enter into treaties lightly. They are solemn commitments made after wide-ranging democratic debate. Unilateral action by the president does not measure up to this standard. Unilateralism might have seemed more plausible during the cold war. The popular imagination was full of apocalyptic scenarios under which the nation's fate hinged on emergency action by the president alone. These decisions did not typically involve the termination of treaties. But with the president's finger poised on the nuclear button, it might have seemed unrealistic for constitutional scholars to insist on a fundamental difference between the executive power to implement our foreign policy commitments and the power to terminate them.

The world now looks very different. America's adversaries may inveigh against its hegemony, but for America's friends, the crucial question is how this country will exercise its dominance. Will its power be wielded by a single man — unchecked by the nation's international obligations or the control of Congress? Or will that power be exercised under the democratic rule of law?

Barry Goldwater's warning is even more relevant today than 20 years ago. The question is whether Republicans will heed his warning against "a dangerous precedent for executive usurpation of Congress's historically and constitutionally based powers." Several leading senators signed this statement that appeared in Senator Goldwater's brief — including Orrin Hatch, Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond, who are still serving. They should defend Congress's power today, as they did in the Carter era.

If they join with Democrats in raising the constitutional issue, they will help establish a precedent that will endure long after the ABM treaty is forgotten. Congress should proceed with a joint resolution declaring that Mr. Bush cannot terminate treaty obligations on his own. And if the president proceeds unilaterally, Congress should take further steps to defend its role in foreign policy.

We need not suppose that the president will respond by embarking on a collision course with Congress. His father, for example, took a different approach to constitutionally sensitive issues. When members of Congress went to court to challenge the constitutionality of the Persian Gulf war, President George H. W. Bush did not proceed unilaterally. To his great credit, he requested and received support from both houses of Congress before making war against Saddam Hussein. This decision stands as one precedent for the democratic control of foreign policy in the post-cold war era. We are now in the process of creating another.

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[blavatsky3]

The Shooting of Robert Woodward


by keith harmon snow


On December 2, 2001, thirty-seven year-old Robert A. Woodward entered the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Brattleboro, VT. Parishioners of this peace-loving church waiting for the 10 a.m. service to begin instead heard from the weeping stranger, standing at the altar podium, who spoke about the environment and civil rights and his fears of being hunted down, tortured and killed by the FBI.



“If the police are called,” eyewitnesses recount Woodward saying, “I will be killed.”



Children were immediately taken outside and at 10:04 a.m. church President Charles Butterfield placed a 911 call from his office. According to Butterfield he requested plainclothes officers be dispatched, he related that Woody was “deathly afraid” of authorities, that he had a knife and was threatening to take his own life.



Using very specific language, the tearful Woodward begged the church for protection. A political activist awake to the FBI and CIA’s histories of human rights atrocities and clandestine political repression, Woodward made a rational choice – in coming to this specific church -- based on the history of the Unitarian church in providing sanctuary for asylum seekers. (The Unitarian church is widely noted for its efforts to aid refugees from Guatemala and Nicaragua).



Woodward begged for “sanctuary” from the authorities. Eyewitnesses in later testimony conferred that Woodward claimed to have been threatened at his home the previous evening by CIA or FBI agents. A downstairs neighbor at Woodward’s apartment in Bellows Falls, VT, claims to have seen and heard two men questioning Woodward on the evening of December 1.


SHOOT FOR THE BODY MASS



At about 10:10 a.m. three veteran Brattleboro police officers with bulletproof vests and automatic weapons entered the church. What they found was a group of people seated beside the altar consoling Woodward. The situation had been de-escalated, and police reportedly asked someone present at the back of the church “which one is it?”



Woodward had become distressed as parishioners initially left the church. Some of the eighteen people who stayed had convinced Woodward to put away the four-inch knife he had drawn and pointed at his eye to gain the attention of those leaving – parishioners incapable of taking Woodward’s pleas for sanctuary seriously – and with a cell phone they were making calls to Woodward’s friends in an effort to confirm his story. Told that his behavior had frightened people, Woodward said, “I’m sorry.”



Spotting the police, one eyewitness told them to “get back.” Police officers from the back of the church shouted at Woodward. With no attempt to negotiate or disable Woodward with pepper spray, and perhaps less than a minute later, at about 10:13 a.m., two veteran Brattleboro police officers -- trained in hostage negotiation and the use of less-than-lethal force -- pumped seven .40 caliber bullets into Robert Woodward.



The police and witness’ accounts differ starkly, but evidence suggests that Woodward was shot four or five times after he was down. In a re-enactment of the shooting, witness Thomas Thompson was adamant that Woodward was shot from above as he lay curled in the fetal position on the floor. Vermont State's Attorney Dan Davis reported to the Woodward family on Dec. 7, 2001, that the preliminary official autopsy results showed that one bullet entered Woodward's back.



His elbow shattered, wounded in both arms, shot at least once in the gut and once in the back, police handcuffed Woodward stomach down. Prior to the arrival of EMT’s, and for some time thereafter, eyewitness and professional nurse Phyllis Woodring plead with police to be allowed to treat Woodward and stop the bleeding. Police refused.



According to officials’ statements, “medical treatment was rendered immediately.”



Eyewitness chronologies – supported by scant official details made public to date – suggest that EMT’s responded slowly and were prevented for some “medically significant period of time” from attending to the cuffed and wounded man: when EMT’s requested the handcuffs be removed they were refused because Woodward – totally incapacitated by gunshot wounds -- had not been searched.



The official record has the ambulance drivers reporting that they were on route to the hospital at 10:37 a.m. It took some 23 minutes to get Woodward off the church floor. Equally curious, it took 22 minutes more for the ambulance to drive the three miles to the Brattleboro hospital – normally a six-minute drive, at posted speed limits, with one stoplight.



Moaning about “political assassination” and “global warming” and crying “I love you,” Woodward remained conscious. Woodward died at about 2 p.m.


Police Investigate Themselves



Robert Woodward was a peaceful man whose life, according to hundreds of friends, acquaintances and professional colleagues, revolved around kindness, compassion and public service, especially active with children and the elderly.



Woodward lived his philosophy, shunning materialism, eating no animal products, working to educate people about global climatic mayhem, peace and justice. After the horrors of September 11, 2001, Woodward grew increasingly alarmed about the abrogation of civil liberties in the United States and the unaccountable sweeping and secretive powers of the Office of Homeland Security.



Newspapers have misrepresented both circumstances and character of Robert Woodward – in keeping with the official description of an unstable loner, paranoid and psychotic, armed and dangerous. Accepting official accounts bent on exonerating officers of all possible wrongs even before any formal investigation began, newspapers remain silent on the gross irregularities of the case.



Witnesses filled out police reports the same day, December 2. According to Woodward’s supporters, the three police officers -- sequestered in a private room on Monday, December 3, unsupervised – compared and corroborated written statements.



In a gross procedural irregularity and violation of fundamental human rights, Woodward’s body was not released to the family, but was quickly cremated – destroying the forensic and medical evidence – prior to any independent autopsy or familial observation. Autopsy and forensic evidence has been withheld, and evidence at the church – the scene of a crime no matter which side you attribute with criminality – was destroyed and tampered with.



Analysis of the investigation by Vermont State Attorney General William Sorrel reveals major discrepancies in witness and police versions. The report is rife with Orwellian manipulations designed to downplay irregularities, discredit or suppress key eyewitness testimony, and exaggerate the scant evidence that serves to buttress official positions.



Woodward family attorney Thomas Costello said Vermont State Police had “prejudged” their investigation in a Dec. 3 press release. The family has filed a civil suit against the State of Vermont.



The details of the fateful minutes at the All Souls Church, the subsequent police actions and rescue delays in administering help, and the irregularities, illegalities and conflicts of interest of the police investigation -- reluctantly instituted after widespread public protest -- are the subjects of a September 24th press conference organized by friends and supporters of Robert “Woody” Woodward (www.justiceforwoody.org).



“To me it is clear,” says Jim Hoffman, one of the long-time friends spearheading the Justice For Woody press conference in Brattleboro, “there was a cover-up from the very beginning. Here you have three officers, all carrying pepper spray, all had body armor with big American flags on their chests -- every one of them over 200 pounds – and then there’s this scrawny 140 pound guy, in a t-shirt, holding a knife to his own eye, terrified of being hunted and disappeared. And all of the 18 eyewitnesses present have said that they never felt threatened by Woody.”



Exactly what happened in the hours and minutes before Woodward was shot? What was he running from? Were his fears justified? Is this what standard police operating procedure looks like in America? Is this a case of excessive force? A dark political assassination and cover-up? Or is it merely a horrible – though lethal -- mistake made by otherwise caring police officers afraid for their safety and the safety of some people in a church?

http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads...Woodward-2.htm

[blavatsky3]

www.justiceforwoody.org

http://www.justiceforwoody.net/

both seem to be deadlinks

[blavatsky3]

The Hartford Courant, January 6, 2002

Over The Edge In Brattleboro
Many Can't See Why Police Had To Gun Down `Woody' Woodward

By JOSH KOVNER And GARY LIBOW, Courant Staff Writers

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. -- 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."

Copyright (c) 2002 by the Hartford Courant

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[blavatsky3]

Vermont City to Pay $150,000 for Killing Suicidal Man

The city of Brattleboro, VT has agreed to pay $150,000 to the family of Robert "Woody" Woodward for a 2001 fatal incident in which Woodward entered a church, threatened himself with a knife, and talked about political assassinations. Brattleboro police officers were called to the scene and reportedly shot Woodward seven times. Woodward's family filed suit, claiming that police used excessive force and should not have shot and killed the man. The family is going to donate half of the money to charity.

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