NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch
By Alissa Scott
Posted Oct. 14, 2015
They call it a counseling session. And it takes place in what usually is a sacred space — the sanctuary of a church.
Members of the Word of Life Christian Church conducted one of these sessions Sunday night for brothers Lucas and Christopher Leonard.
This one turned deadly.
“It was explained to us that a counseling session is when a pastor sits down with a member of the church to discuss their spiritual state,” New Hartford Police Chief Michael Inserra said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “Both brothers were continuously subjected to physical punishment over several hours in hopes that each would confess their prior sins and ask for forgiveness.”
During that session, at least six members of the church — two of them the brothers’ parents — beat the teens for hours, police said. It ended in the death of 19-year-old Lucas and in serious injuries to Christopher, 17.
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