HUNTER T RESCH - 7 yo - (2010) Greece NY

GREECE -- Police said a 39-year-old man shot and killed his
7-year-old son and then committed suicide in a house at 491 Island
Cottage Road last night.

Chief Todd Baxter of the Greece Police
Department said names of the victims have not been released yet,
pending identification by the Monroe County Medical Examiner's office.

Baxter
said the mother of the child, who was estranged from her husband who
lived at 491 Island Cottage, called 911 last evening asking police to
check on the welfare of her child.

The house is located directly across Island Cottage Road from the access road leading to the Greece Police Department.

"The wife was responding to the house at the same time we were responding," Baxter said. "She was coming from another location."

When
officers arrived at the address at about 7:30, they first checked the
exterior of the house, then discovered the grisly scene when they
looked inside.

"They peered through one of the windows and they
saw an apparent gunshot victim inside the location, in the living
room," Baxter said. "They immediately made entry into the house to try
and secure that victim. Upon entering the house, the officers found a
second victim just inside the back door of the house. That victim was
also apparently dead on arrival from a gunshot wound."

Baxter said that the father picked up his son earlier Friday from
the mother's residence for a scheduled visitation period. The mother
had received an order of protection against her husband on Jan. 25, and
at that time, weapons had been cleared from the Island Cottage Road
address by police, Baxter said. A second order was issued on Feb. 8.

Baxter
said that yesterday evening, the boy's mother became concerned with his
welfare after speaking to the boy's father on the phone.

"She
called from an area on Ridge Road," Baxter said. "She got worried about
her son based on conversations she was having with the male at the
house. So she was starting to respond here. While she was responding,
she also called 911 and asked us to go check on the welfare of the
child. The officers beat her to the scene and were just doing the
preliminary check on the exterior of the house when she arrived."

Baxter,
who is in his first week as chief of police in Greece after a long
career with the Rochester Police Department, said the situation was a
difficult one for everybody involved.

"It is very traumatic on
the family, the family is extremely distraught, both sides of the
family," Baxter said. "The officers are quite upset, the ones that had
to go inside and see the child in that condition. It is a very
traumatic situation."

Baxter said that the father had left at least one note inside the house that referred to Friday's shootings.

Baxter said the weapon used in the shootings appeared to be a shotgun.

This child should have been protected by the judge from visitation
Meaghan M. McDermott and Nestor Ramos
• Staff writers • February 14, 2010



GREECE, NY — A Greece man who killed his son and himself Friday was receiving counseling but had lost hope, his mother said.

Carol Gurgel said she’d urged her son, Mark P. Resch, to seek help, and he’d met with a
counselor in the days before he killed his 7-year-old son Hunter and then fatally shot himself.

“I was in contact with him every day. I knew he was overwhelmed with it all,” Gurgel said.
Resch had lost his job and his car at the beginning of the year, and learned recently that his wife was seeking a divorce.

“Just these last couple of days … he’d kind of given up,” Gurgel said. She said Resch, a
recovering alcoholic, had been telling relatives not to bother worrying about him.

“He’s a very generous, gentle kind person,” Gurgel said. “But he did have mental issues.”

According to police, Mark Resch's apparent motive was revenge against his estranged wife.

"There was an ongoing domestic dispute, and this act was definitely a very spiteful, very aggressive act," said Greece Police Chief Todd Baxter. "This person was a mean person and was doing this pure out of spite."

According to a statement released Saturday by the Greece Central School District, Hunter T. Resch, 7, was a first-grader at Paddy Hill Elementary School on Latta Road. The district will offer counseling for students and their parents.

In a written statement, Hunter T. Resch's teacher, Cathy Carpenter, said he was a wonderful child and was well-liked.

"He loved to learn and explore and was so excited to be with his friends," she said.

Police were called to the yellow-clapboard house on Island Cottage Road about 7:30 p.m. Friday, alerted by a 911 call from Hunter T. Resch's mother asking that they check on the welfare of her son, who was staying with his father as part of a court-ordered visitation.

Baxter said the woman was alarmed by a phone conversation she'd just had with her estranged husband, who told her "you'll never make it here in time" to pick up the boy.

Baxter said the woman had left her husband on Jan. 25, the same day she secured a temporary order of protection against him in Monroe County Family Court for alleged threats against her life.


As part of that order, the man was prohibited from owning any guns, so police removed one shotgun from the Island Cottage Drive home at that time.

The man denied owning any others.

Baxter said police were investigating to see how the man got hold of the shotgun used in the killings.

On Monday, Baxter said, Family Court had issued a permanent restraining order against the man. The order included visitation with his son on some weekdays and alternate weekends, he said.

After the 911 call, police arrived at the home within six minutes. Through a front window, they could see a severely injured child on a couch in the living room.

In an effort to save the boy, officers immediately entered the house, where they found the man dead of a gunshot wound just inside the back door. The child was also dead.

Baxter said police found a long note, written over more than a week, that outlined the man's plan to kill his son.

He would not discuss details of the note, which he called "five or six pages of a lot of hate, anger and spite," but said it proved the act was premeditated.

"He thought about this for more than a week, with no indication to us, his wife or the courts," said Baxter. "He talked about how he was going to do it, and our investigation reveals that he pretty much carried out his plan in how he did it. That kid had no chance."

Police held debriefing and counseling sessions for involved officers and the victim's family on Saturday.

Christopher and Cheryl Irick of Island Cottage Road awoke Saturday to news of the murder-suicide. The couple said they never knew Resch or his family and that the neighborhood has always been quiet.

"That's one of the things that attracted us to here," said Christopher Irick. "And the fact that this happened across from the police station makes it even more shocking. It's such an incredibly sad story."

Calling hours for Hunter T. Resch will be from 2 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16, at Vay - Schleich & Meeson Funeral Home, 1075 Long Pond Road, Greece. A service will be held at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17, at St. Charles Borromeo Church, 3003 Dewey Ave.

MCDERMOT@DemocratandChronicle.com

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/201002140500/NEWS01/2140327

Greece Police Name New K9 After Boy Killed By His Father

Updated: 8/08 12:23 pm



Greece, N.Y. - The newest addition to the Greece Police Department will be named after a boy shot and killed by his father in February 2010.

The K9 will be called Hunter in honor of Hunter Resch.

Hunter, then seven-years-old, was shot and killed by his father in February 2010. Investigators said Mark Resch killed his son in a murder-suicide to get revenge at his wife. The couple split up shortly before the crime.

"Hunter Resch will forever have a place in the hearts of all Greece Police Officers and especially the officers who responded to that tragic event in early 2010," said Greece Police Chief Todd Baxter.

Officer Dave Cubiotti introduced the idea of naming the new canine Hunter.

Hunter, a German Shepherd, will report to duty next month.

The dog will perform security checks, track fleeing suspects, support officers in apprehensions, and search for narcotics.

http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Greece-Police-Name-New-K9-After-Boy-Killed-By-His/E5Xo5WoIHk-AgMTFAVIahQ.cspx