Gunman Kills One at a Church in New Jersey
A gunman invaded a small church in Clifton, N.J., during services on Sunday and killed his estranged wife and critically wounded two other people with shots to the head in what appeared to be the climax of a violent domestic quarrel that had reached from California to India to New Jersey over the past year, authorities and witnesses said.
The Knanaya church is about 10 miles west of Manhattan.
As more than 100 worshipers dived under the pews of St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church, the assailant, after an argument in the foyer, fired four shots from a silver handgun, striking his wife, who had refused to leave the church with him; a relative who had recently taken her in; and a man who either happened upon or tried to intervene in the confrontation, the police and witnesses said.
The shootings happened at 11:44 a.m., a witness said.
The gunman ran from the church and drove away in a green convertible Jeep Wrangler with a black soft top and the California license 5JHD200, said the police, who identified him as Joseph Pallipurath, 27, of Sacramento. He remained at large Sunday night as the New Jersey State Police and law enforcement authorities in northern New Jersey widened a manhunt on highways and at transportation terminals.
The victims were taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson, where Mr. Pallipurath’s wife, Reshma James, 24, died about 4 p.m., the police said. The other victims, both listed in very critical condition, were identified by church members as Ms. James’s relative, Silvy Perincheril, 47, of Hawthorne, N.J., who is the principal of the church’s Sunday school, and Dennis John Malloosseril, 23, a church director.
Members of the congregation, families of Indian descent from across northern New Jersey and some from as far away as Long Island, gathered outside the steepled red-brick, one-story church in the harsh afternoon cold, huddling in bright silk dresses and shirts, consoling one another, weeping and awaiting word on the victims.
“It was very scary,” Anna Manimalethu said. “My kids are still scared.”
The Clifton police described Mr. Pallipurath as armed and dangerous, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 160 pounds. They said active restraining orders had been issued in California and New Jersey against him after domestic violence complaints by his wife, who had moved recently to New Jersey. Detective Capt. Robert Rowan said it appeared the gunman had driven from California to try to force her to return with him.
Members of the church gave a more elaborate account of the woman’s hardships, citing an arranged and abusive marriage that had left her terrified. A family friend, Aniyan Panavelil, said Ms. James, a registered nurse who grew up in India, had wed Mr. Pallipurath, an American, in India a year ago in an arrangement made by their families.
It was unclear if they had met before their wedding. Mr. Panavelil said the husband returned first to the United States and she joined him in Sacramento in January, and soon became a victim of domestic violence. Mr. Panavelil said the couple returned to India for a month to try to work things out with counselors, but the effort failed.
“He said he couldn’t do it anymore,” Mr. Panavelil said. As for Ms. James, he said, “He was torturing her too much.” The couple separated when they returned to this country, Mr. Pallipurath going to California and Ms. James to New Jersey, where she took refuge with Ms. Perincheril.
Ms. James began attending services with Ms. Perincheril at St. Thomas Knanaya, where some 60 families