Catholic World News News Feature
Priest, Elderly Woman Shot During Mass In New York Church March 12, 2002
LYNBROOK, New York, Mar 12, 02 (CWNews.com) - A man armed with a rifle shot and killed a priest and a 73-year-old woman during a Mass on Long Island in New York on Tuesday morning and police have surrounded a nearby house where the suspect was believed to be hiding.
"He's still in there, as far as we know," Nassau County Police Inspector Pete Matuza said several hours after the shooting. He said the house has several apartments and the suspect lives in one of them. It wasn't clear if the suspect was armed.
Father Lawrence Penzes, 50, and Eileen Tosner, 73, were both shot just as Penzes had finished his homily at Our Lady of Peace Church in the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Tosner was found slumped in the pew; she had been shot in the face, said Lynbrook mayor Eugene Scarpato.
The suspect, described as 35 to 40 years old, fired the shots at about 9:10 am, Matuza said. He was chased by two parishioners, including an off-duty policeman, as he fled. They wrestled the rifle away from him and he escaped into the house about a block away. A nearby parochial school with 400 students in grades 1 to 8 was locked down.
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