Priest, parishioner killed in shooting at Long Island church; suspect captured

By Sara Kugler

Associated Press

LYNBROOK, N.Y. – A man suspected of fatally shooting a priest and an elderly worshipper at a Long Island church was arrested Tuesday after police stormed his home and ended a daylong standoff.

The 34-year-old suspect, whom police did not immediately identify, was captured after he attempted to stab an officer with a small knife, Nassau County Police Inspector Pete Matuza said.

Police say the man took a rifle into a Roman Catholic church during morning Mass and opened fire, killing the priest and a 73-year-old worshipper.

Two parishioners, one of them an off-duty police officer, chased the gunman as he fled and wrestled the rifle away. But he escaped into the house about a block from the church.

Mayor Eugene Scarpato said he understood that the gunman – described as 35 to 40 years old – was a former church employee who had been fired several months ago. But police and church officials would not immediately confirm that.

The Rev. Lawrence Penzes, 50, known to his congregation at Our Lady of Peace Church as “Father Larry,” was speaking to about 40 parishioners when he was shot in the back and fell near the altar, the mayor said. Eileen Tosner was shot in the face and found slumped in a pew, Scarpato said.

Jean Maier was in the first pew when she “heard three cracks like a firecracker and I just threw myself on the floor.”

“I saw Father Larry go down. … Then when I finally got up, the lady behind me was dead,” she told the News12 cable TV station.

A grade school next to the church with 400 students was locked down, and several blocks around the house where the man hid were cordoned off.

Joanne Zizzo, a neighbor who attends Mass at the church, said Tosner was a beautiful person, and “we love that priest. I’m sick over it.”

The Rockville Centre Diocese, which encompasses Nassau and Suffolk counties, is home to 1.5 million Catholics.