NEW PLYMOUTH, Idaho James (Bobby) Moore fears he may be killed by angry townsfolk before he is tried for the shooting death of a New Plymouth police officer, his older sister said.

Police Chief Fred Coburn dismissed the allegations, saying ''It's not the wild West.''

But Rose Grove said her 14-year-old brother called her from the Payette County jail, 13 miles from New Plymouth, where he is being held as a suspect in the killing of a popular young policeman.

''He said he's afraid that he won't make

it to trial,'' Grove said on Saturday.

''There won't be any lynchings. A lot of people have comme

nted they would like to, but that type of thing doesn't happen,'' Coburn said. ''He's trying to play games, I think.''

Police Officer Ronald Wade Feldner, 29, was shot in the face with a handgun on Thursday morning in a New Plymouth school parking lot while checking on a stolen car. The father of four was admired for his work in teaching New Plymouth school children to stay away from drugs.

The Feldner family on Saturday was taking the death ''as well as can be expected under the circumstances,'' said Ray Zahm, a friend and like Feldner, a volunteer firefighter in the farming community of 1,300.

Funeral services are scheduled for today.

Moore, from Boise, was arrested in Ontario, Ore., and charged with first-degree murder and grand theft. Two other Boise youths, 14 and 15, were put in the Ada County juvenile detention center on juvenile charges of grand theft.

The car they were in, a 1969 Volkswagen, was reported stolen Wednesday from a Boise restaurant.

Grove said she and her mother, Mary Moore, won't be able to visit Bobby Moore at the jail until today, during regular visiting hours.

Th

e boy left his mother's Boise home four months ago. He used an alias and stayed with friends.

''Every time we get a

report that he was at a friend's hou

se, we'd go check it out and he'd left there about a week prior,'' Grove said.

The only time the family heard from Moore was while he was on the loose was around Christmas.

''He called to tell us he still loved us, and he wasn't running away to be mean,'' she said

. ''He said, 'You know that I'm OK.' ''

Grove said Bobby Moore had a two-year record of juvenile infractions including shoplifting small items from grocery stores, but had done nothing to indicate he might kill someone.