Youth violence and gun use have received many headlines this autumn. It may seem distant to many in our region, and others may feel tragedies such as these never happen around here.

Unfortunately, that’s not true. Back in October 1961, two Cooperstown teenagers were shot to death in an apparent yearlong off-and-on feud between them and another teenager. The killer was shot by police bullets a few hours later.

A peaceful, chilly Saturday night, Oct. 14, was interrupted around 7 p.m. as the sounds of gunfire were heard in the heart of Cooperstown’s business district. It took place in a driveway just off Main Street between the First National Bank and the Cooperstown office of the National Commercial Bank and Trust Company. We know these buildings today as the Heroes of Baseball Wax Museum and Key Bank, respectively.

The alleged killer, Charles Warner, 16, fled the scene in his car. He had shot Howard Lindstadt and Philip Lindroth, both 17, in the Main Street driveway. Lindstadt lived only a few minutes after the shooting, while Lindroth died about two hours later at Bassett Hospital.

Robert Gray, Jr., home on leave from the U.S. Navy, told police he was walking along Main Street in front of Withey’s Drug store and saw a car, believed to be Warner’s, traveling east on Main Street and then enter the driveway. Moments later, he said, he heard a number of shots and then screams in the driveway.

Shortly after police arrived, they said Warner’s father drove up, not knowing what had happened at the time. Warner told police he had been looking for his son, who had left home around 5 p.m. Police said the elder Warner had noticed that four guns were missing from a cabinet at their home.

An attendant at a Cooperstown gas station at the corner of Chestnut and Elm streets told police that the Warner boy had driven into his station about 10 minutes before the shooting and ordered a full tank of gasoline.

An immediate search began for Warner, first in the Eggleston Hill area, five miles south of Cooperstown. Later the search focused on the Big Moose Lake area in the Adirondacks. The father told police that Charles’ aunt had a cabin in that area.

It was there that police spotted Warner, and he was shot while trying to make an escape in his car after after police had shouted surrender warnings. The car picked up speed and went out of control after the driver was hit.

State police at the Oneida Troop D headquarters said a pistol, two rifles and an automatic shotgun, all fully loaded, plus hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found in the car after the youth’s capture.[an error occurred while processing this directive]