Police say there’s a 17-year-old in the hospital with serious blunt force trauma injuries, but they’re not yet releasing the identity of the teen or saying there’s any connection to the death of Leonard.
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In conducting their investigation, New Hartford Police interviewed several members of the Word of Life Church, located on 3354 Oneida Street in New Hartford/Chadwicks.
Lucas Leonard, 19, was taken by family members in a auto to a hospital in nearby Utica on Monday afternoon. New Hartford Police, state troopers and a SWAT team were sent in Monday to the church, leading to evacuations along the street. A central New York couple have been charged with fatally beating their 19-year-old son inside the church, and four fellow church members have been charged with assault in an attack that also left the young man’s brother severely injured, police said Tuesday.
The teen-ager died shortly after arriving at the hospital, police said.
Bruce Leonard, 65, and Deborah Leonard, 59, of Clayville, were charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of their son Lucas, said Lt. Timothy O’Neill of the New Hartford Police Department.
All of the defendants were being held in the Oneida County Jail without bail. Four other members of the church have been charged with assault. Their lawyers attempting to lessen the bail with the plea of no prior convictions and Leonard’s mother suffering a medical condition.
The pastor of a Catholic church two buildings down from the Word of Life Christian Church told CNN that not much is known about their neighbors. “They keep to themselves”, Rev. Abraham Esper of St. Patrick’s-St. “They are certainly not a mainline church”. Ferguson, a member of the Word of Life Church has been charged with assault for beating 19-year-old Lucas Leonard inside the church. He said he’s never seen people coming or going in the five years he’s been at St. Anthony’s, which has one service on Saturday and two on Sunday.
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‘We expect to learn more about the evidence and charges at that time, ‘ Gerace said.
