The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 1

Employes morale Tough economic times are taking their toil on workers. 1C ochrie wins LPGA tourney id Hawks don't make NBA playoffs id 4 a AAA Ife M55 OrssswilteisBn's shooting cteafn stuns Hsighyoriiood tive Rodney Neely of the Greenville Police Department. Bayou Street is a tiny street bordered by Jenkins and Matthews Streets. Brown's home faced a fenced-in field of clover and small wildflowers. His grandmother said he was living with an aunt.

His older brother and two sisters lived with other relatives. "He was a good little kid," said Curtis Sibert, who lived next door to Brown. See Shooting, Page 9A chest, a report states. He was covered in blood and gasping for air. Emergency Medical Services paramedics arrived and began to treat the youth, but were unable to save him, the report states.

Greenville County Deputy Coroner Ed Hanek said Brown died of a single gunshot wound to the chest. "We don't have a motive on why this young man was shot we still have investigators out trying to get information," said Detec- nesses and trying to figure out what brought on the shots that resulted in Brown's death. No arrests have been made. According to police reports, a Greenville County Sheriffs Office deputy was in the community early Sunday when he heard five to six shots coming from the 790 block of Jenkins Street. When deputies and Greenville police arrived on the scene, they found Brown lying in a driveway on Jenkins Street with a bullet wound in the right side of his was less than a block away from his home when he was shot to death about 12:30 a.m.

Sunday, police said. "They had made a phone call and he was coming down the street and somebody was shooting wild shots and he caught one of the bullets," said his grandmother, Jessie Powers, 57. "He was a pretty good kid," said Ms. Powers, who lives around the corner from Brown's home on Calhoun Street. Police are interviewing wit- A "1 Hit 'I Mi: Li w.ij Ljr hi I A I By Allah D.

Wright News staff writer Alfonzo "Ace" Brown was much like any other 14-year-old. On the brink of adulthood, he liked to hang out with his friends and play basketball with other teen-agers in his Sterling neighborhood. i That's why news of his death early Easter morning in a burst of gunfire rocked his relatives and neighbors. i A student at Parker Middle School, Brown, of 13 Bayou Survey finds rise in violent crime The Justice Department says its findings show a 59 percent surge in rapes and attempted rapes, but cautions the percentages could be misleading. WASHINGTON (AP) An estimated 59 percent surge in rapes and attempted rapes and a substantial Increase In assaults spurred a dramatic rise in violent crime last year, according to a Justice Department survey of Crime victims released Sunday.

Preliminary figures showed there were 2,612,150 completed violent crimes last year, up 7.9 percent from an estimated 2,421,530 the previous year. Including attempted violent crimes, the total was 6,427,480 last year, up 7 percent from 6,008,790 in 1990. But department officials cautioned that the percentage increases could be misleading because they translated into only marginal rises in crime rates. The Justice Department noted that its estimate of the total number of crimes and attempted crimes last year 35 million was well below the 41.4 million of 1981. The estimates by the Bureau of Justice Statistics have shown a gradual decline in crime since its annual National Crime Survey was begun in 1973.

Still, the 6.4 million total completed and attempted violent crimes was the third highest since 1973. A The bureau's annual National Crime Survey estimated there were 31.3 attempted or completed violent crimes per 1,000 people last year. That's up from 29.6 per 1,000 in 1990, but it's well below the record rate of 35.3 per 1,000 in 1981. These offenses include rape, robbery and assault, but not murder. As for rapes and attempted rapes, there were an estimated 207,610 in 1991, up 59 percent from an estimated 130,260 the previous year.

The rate of such assaults was 1 per 1,000, compared with 0.6 per 1,000 the previous year. Rapes See Crime, Page 9A DAYBREAK Cloudy, rain likely Monday will be cloudy with a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms and highs around 80. Monday night will be mostly cloudy with a 60 percent chance of rain and lows around 60. Page 12A. Four sections, 34 pages Abby 2B Health 3A Bridge 7B Jumble 7B Business 1C Lifestyle 1B 4C Obituaries 1 0A Crossword 7B S.Carolina...

2A Sports 1D Comics 6B 4B Editorial 4A Theaters 2B 118th year No. 107 TEEN-AGER SHOT A non-communist official took charge of the government. One rebel leader threatened again to attack the Afghanistan capital. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Muslim rebels seized more territory on Sunday and tried to put aside rivalries to avoid a bloody scramble for power. But one rebel leader renewed his threats to attack the besieged capital.

A non-communist official took-charge of ousted President Naji-bullah's crumbling regime, but the government's power was vir-f tuallygone. Leaders from 10 rebel groups met in Peshawar, Pakistan, and agreed to form an interim council to negotiate with the remnants of the Kabul government. A Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman, Javeed Hussein, said there was a "broad consensus" on an orderly transfer of power to end the 14-year-old civil war. However, the most fundamentalist rebel faction, Hezb-i-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, rejected the interim council plan. "We don't see any prospect for a (peaceful) solution," said Hek-matyar's spokesman in Pakistan, i See Afghanistan, Page 9A enormous amounts of time.

Three times a week, he drives 20 miles in a specially equipped car to Harvey's St. Aloisius Hospital for two-hour sessions. He undergoes similar daily therapy at home. Thompson, who favors sweatsuits and a baseball cap, also goes to school and accommodates requests for interviews with news media. Everything he does reminds him of his injuries.

He even sang a solo recently at a district chorus competition. But he wasn't happy. "People came to look at me, they didn't come to listen to me," he said. Thompson was working alone on the farm when he became entangled in power machinery that ripped off his arms. He staggered 400 feet to his house, opening doors with his mouth and using a pencil to punch buttons on the telephone to summon help.

His story has touched people around the world. He's got a growing collection of videotapes and newspaper clippings from all the news he's made. Gifts cards and banners fill the Thompson basement. He still gets calls from well-wishers around the country. One woman stopped by unannounced with a homemade ointment she said would help his arms.

At an April 11 boxing match in Bismarck, his first big outing since the accident, so many people wanted to speak to him, he See Surgery, Page 8A THE ASSOCIATED PRESS international airport Three Afghan security guards wearing civilian clothes carry their weapons at Kabul's 1V, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS i Tssn who had his arms reattachsd copss with therapy 1 as I 24-hour alsrt called off for 'backup' Pentagon The Baltimore Sun RAVEN ROCK, Pa. The nation's military chiefs, no longer fearing a nuclear Armageddon, have quietly lifted the round-the-clock alert ordered almost 40 years ago at Site a secret U.S. command fortress buried a half-mile inside this mountain near the Maryland state line. Facilities within the site that had been on 24-hour alert in case of a surprise Soviet nuclear attack are finally closing down at night. "A lot of people have been dispersed, reassigned, and the place is going down to a caretaker status," said a senior military officer at the Pentagon.

"It's no longer a 24-hour-a-day operation. People go home at the end of the workday." This adjustment to the post-Cold War world began Feb. 1 and is the latest in a series of unpubii-cized changes by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the operation of the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon and its main backup site here, in the Catoctin Mountain range. The two facilities ran parallel operations, with the Site "watch teams" acting like clones of their Pentagon counterparts. "If anything hiccuped, they were supposed to be in step, following everything," said the senior officer, who would discuss classified operations only if assured of anonymity.

"Basically, we don't maintain the teams (at Site R) anymore. See Pentagon, Page 8A In addition to long hours of therapy, the North Dakota 18-year-old is also being to forced to deal with being a national celebrity. HARVEY, N.D. (AP) At first, he jokes with his physical therapist as they stretch and move his reattached arms. But it's not long before John Thompson shows the wear and frustration of constant therapy and prolonged uncertainty.

A single tear streams down his face. A nurse wipes it away. "Just one of those days, huh?" therapist Kelly Christenson asks as he stretches Thompson's hand. "I'm just really tired," the weary 18-year-old from Hurd-sfield replies with a nod. Laconic, shy, edgy and amiable, the tall blond teen-ager lost weight from his already slender frame after a Jan.

11 accident at the family farm in which his arms were torn off at the shoulders. A surgeon reattached them. Most of the time, his arms stay bandaged and in splints. Bared for therapy, a visitor sees his right arm is still swollen below the elbow and his arms are a patchwork of skin grafts. Swift changes of emotion are daily weather for Thompson.

Tedious physical therapy to help the arms heal and strengthen takes Holiday headgear Bertha Sheppard of Elizabeth, N.J., sports her customized Easter Sunday hat in New York's Easter Parade along Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. Sheppard calls her creation 'Mad, Mad As Christians around the world celebrated the holiday in different ways, Pope John Paul II appealed for an end to ethnic fighting in his Easter message..