11-25-2008, 02:53 AM
NJ church killings affect a global community
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/new...0,1455747.story
By VICTOR EPSTEIN and GEOFF MULVIHILL | Associated Press Writer
November 24, 2008
CLIFTON, N.J. - Just after the prayer for departed souls Sunday at a church that has long ministered to those making fresh starts, Reshma James was shot dead, allegedly by the estranged husband she had traveled halfway across the world to escape.
Two people who tried to help her were also shot in a tragedy in the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton that has reverberated throughout the Knanaya faith, a close-knit Christian minority in India who are even closer-knit in the United States.
The cousin who took James in was in "extremely critical" condition, though police said hospital personnel were hopeful about her prospects. A man who apparently tried to intervene in the fight that led to the shootings was dead. And authorities were trying to find the alleged shooter, Joseph M. Pallipurath.
James' aunt, Maria Joseph, says 27-year-old Pallipurath had grown up in the United States before going to India last year to find a wife.
Joseph, who lives in Hartford, Conn., one of a handful of U.S. cities with big Knanaya communities, said she had heard from relatives that that Pallipurath had "behavioral problems."
She says she counseled her niece not to marry him. "I warned her lovingly," she said.
But the young woman, who wanted to be a nurse, did not listen.
The wedding was at the end of the summer of 2007 in the largely Christian state of Kerala, where a group of Knanaya Christians from Syria settled some 1700 years ago.
Joseph said her unheeded advice led to a rift. She said she didn't hear from the bride and groom after the wedding and did not know they moved to California early this year.
There would be more family mysteries and disappearances.
Pallipurath's father, Mathai, said his whole family, including his daughter-in-law visited India in September.
The 24-year-old James stayed behind with a promise to return to California. But she never did. Authorities say she wanted to get away from Pallipurath because he was abusive.
Instead, she arrived in Hawthorne, N.J., a few weeks ago to live with her distant cousin, 47-year-old Silvy Perincheril. Mathai Pallipurath said he did not know she was in the United States. And he said he knew his son left in October to stay with a relative in Georgia, but that he had not been in touch, either.
The blinds were drawn shut and nobody answered the door Monday at the Sacramento apartment building where the couple lived. Neighbor Maria Tolcock said she didn't know Pallipurath, but would see him frequently pacing on the deck of the second-floor apartment where they lived.
In New Jersey, James went with Perincheril to services at St. Thomas, a church that moved around the suburbs of New York City for 13 years before its members finally bought a modest brick building in Clifton eight years ago.
The vicar, the Rev. Thomas Abraham, said the church was founded in 1987 for a community that began a decade earlier, as Knanaya women came from India as exchange students in nursing and pharmacy and stayed.
Now, some services are in English as the church fills with the children of the first-generation immigrants who founded it.
On Sunday, one of those younger members was Dennis John Mallosseril, an engineer at the Schering-Plough Corp. and who was two days shy of his 26th birthday.
Witnesses said he tried to intervene when he saw Pallipurath come in and fight with James. He was shot and died Monday.
"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Abraham said.
Mallosseril's cousin, Jiji Alummoottil, called the victim a hero: "He would help people in trouble. That's what he was doing yesterday and that's why he's dead."
Archbishop Kuriakose Mar Severios, who is based in Kerala, is scheduled to arrive in New Jersey on Wednesday to mourn.
____
Associated Press writers Judy Lin in Sacramento, Calif., and Bonny Ghosh in Clifton contributed to this article.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/new...0,1455747.story
By VICTOR EPSTEIN and GEOFF MULVIHILL | Associated Press Writer
November 24, 2008
CLIFTON, N.J. - Just after the prayer for departed souls Sunday at a church that has long ministered to those making fresh starts, Reshma James was shot dead, allegedly by the estranged husband she had traveled halfway across the world to escape.
Two people who tried to help her were also shot in a tragedy in the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton that has reverberated throughout the Knanaya faith, a close-knit Christian minority in India who are even closer-knit in the United States.
The cousin who took James in was in "extremely critical" condition, though police said hospital personnel were hopeful about her prospects. A man who apparently tried to intervene in the fight that led to the shootings was dead. And authorities were trying to find the alleged shooter, Joseph M. Pallipurath.
James' aunt, Maria Joseph, says 27-year-old Pallipurath had grown up in the United States before going to India last year to find a wife.
Joseph, who lives in Hartford, Conn., one of a handful of U.S. cities with big Knanaya communities, said she had heard from relatives that that Pallipurath had "behavioral problems."
She says she counseled her niece not to marry him. "I warned her lovingly," she said.
But the young woman, who wanted to be a nurse, did not listen.
The wedding was at the end of the summer of 2007 in the largely Christian state of Kerala, where a group of Knanaya Christians from Syria settled some 1700 years ago.
Joseph said her unheeded advice led to a rift. She said she didn't hear from the bride and groom after the wedding and did not know they moved to California early this year.
There would be more family mysteries and disappearances.
Pallipurath's father, Mathai, said his whole family, including his daughter-in-law visited India in September.
The 24-year-old James stayed behind with a promise to return to California. But she never did. Authorities say she wanted to get away from Pallipurath because he was abusive.
Instead, she arrived in Hawthorne, N.J., a few weeks ago to live with her distant cousin, 47-year-old Silvy Perincheril. Mathai Pallipurath said he did not know she was in the United States. And he said he knew his son left in October to stay with a relative in Georgia, but that he had not been in touch, either.
The blinds were drawn shut and nobody answered the door Monday at the Sacramento apartment building where the couple lived. Neighbor Maria Tolcock said she didn't know Pallipurath, but would see him frequently pacing on the deck of the second-floor apartment where they lived.
In New Jersey, James went with Perincheril to services at St. Thomas, a church that moved around the suburbs of New York City for 13 years before its members finally bought a modest brick building in Clifton eight years ago.
The vicar, the Rev. Thomas Abraham, said the church was founded in 1987 for a community that began a decade earlier, as Knanaya women came from India as exchange students in nursing and pharmacy and stayed.
Now, some services are in English as the church fills with the children of the first-generation immigrants who founded it.
On Sunday, one of those younger members was Dennis John Mallosseril, an engineer at the Schering-Plough Corp. and who was two days shy of his 26th birthday.
Witnesses said he tried to intervene when he saw Pallipurath come in and fight with James. He was shot and died Monday.
"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Abraham said.
Mallosseril's cousin, Jiji Alummoottil, called the victim a hero: "He would help people in trouble. That's what he was doing yesterday and that's why he's dead."
Archbishop Kuriakose Mar Severios, who is based in Kerala, is scheduled to arrive in New Jersey on Wednesday to mourn.
____
Associated Press writers Judy Lin in Sacramento, Calif., and Bonny Ghosh in Clifton contributed to this article.