THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9603300423
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Residents of this small town were trying to cope Friday with a Perquimans County man's apparent suicide during a high school softball practice Thursday afternoon.
``It's a tough time,'' said Dr. Randall Henion, the superintendent of Perquimans County Schools. ``Our focus yesterday was our students and their emotional well-being and just the fact that they were in proximity to what happened.''
Police said that Glenn Marvin Spiess, 37, shot himself in the head inside the Perquimans County High School gymnasium at about 5:15 p.m. Thursday after being confronted by a police officer.
Spiess was the estranged husband of Karen Booker, a physical education teacher and girls softball coach. Booker was with a group of students at another end of the school's gymnasium when the shooting occurred.
A parent apparently alerted the school that Spiess, who had been ordered by a judge to stay away from the school, was on campus.
It was still unclear Friday whether any students or staff members witnessed the shooting.
On Wednesday, a judge had issued a domestic violence protective order against Spiess and warned him to stay away from Booker, who lives in Perquimans County.
At 5:05 p.m. Thursday, police officer C.D. Richards was dispatched to the school with a report that Spiess had been spotted on campus, said Hertford Police Chief Bennie Murphy.
The officer found Spiess near the school's cafeteria. ``He appeared to be waiting for his wife to leave,'' Murphy said.
Spiess then walked into the gymnasium and pulled a semi-automatic handgun from the waistband of his pants.
As Richards pulled his gun, Spiess signaled him to stop and said, ``I'm not here to shoot you,'' before turning the gun on himself, Murphy said.
``It's a traumatic experience, I'm sure, for everyone involved,'' the police chief said. ``We're just glad no one else was injured or hurt.''
The tragedy stunned Hertford, a quiet town of 2,322 residents.
``This community is like a family. People know one another, and we read about people coming into schools and doing things like that,'' Henion said. ``But when something like this happens here, it's shocking and it makes us realize we're not immune to the problems in society and schools.''
Counselors, including a crisis-intervention counselor from Chowan Hospital, were brought to the school, which has about 575 students, on Thursday evening and Friday, Henion said.
Parents, community leaders and ministers also are helping.
``Schools, churches and certain institutions used to be sacred in the community. Now more and more people are crossing those lines and violating safety zones,'' Henion said.
``We want to do everything we can to improve security, but to do that we're going to have to continually improve society and find the root causes of these problems,'' he said.
KEYWORDS: SUICIDE by CNB