Shattering a Fragile Dream

Morningside Park is a kind of uneasy border between two worlds in northern & Manhattan. On the highlands to the west, atop Morningside Heights, are Columbia University, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and graying, middle-class residential neighborhoods. In the valley to the east stretches Harlem. Separating them are the steep green slopes of the park, a wooded no- man's-land that even policemen hesitate to enter. It was on the eastern edge of the park one rainy night last month that Edmund Perry, 17, was shot to death during an alleged attack on a young policeman. The younger of two...