2 Brothers Jailed in Killing of 2 Women in L.A. Church : Domestic Dispute Suspected

A man who had been engaged in a violent domestic dispute with his estranged wife was booked today, along with his half brother, on suspicion of murder in the shotgun attack last week inside a Southeast Los Angeles church that claimed the lives of two women, including a relative of one of the suspects.

Taken into custody were Anthony Oliver, 27, and Albert Lewis Jr., 33, cousin by marriage to 35-year-old Patronella Luke, who was shot in the face and killed instantly last Friday evening at Mt. Olive Church of God in Christ as she crouched under a pew.

In addition, 76-year-old Mae Lee was fatally shot during the church attack and Luke’s husband, Peter, was wounded in the leg and arm. He remains hospitalized and under 24-hour police guard.

The two men were arrested about 7 p.m. Monday, according to a police statement, at a small house on West 117th Street that Lewis had shared with his wife before they separated. Neighbors said Oliver had terrorized that neighborhood all weekend and had at one point brandished a shotgun at a 15-year-old girl.

Just hours before the church shooting, Lewis’ estranged wife had obtained a court order prohibiting him from bothering her, sources close to the family said. Earlier that day, Lewis allegedly had fired a gun into a car owned by a member of his estranged wife’s family and had set fire to two other vehicles.

Friends and family say Lewis’ wife, Cynthia, is a Mt. Olive member who would have been at the Friday night service with the Lukes had she not gone into hiding to avoid contact with her estranged husband. The evening service was being held for about 30 children and teen-agers who had graduated from the church’s vacation Bible school.

People who knew the Lewises well said they were married at the church a year ago in one of the largest wedding ceremonies ever held there. The marriage had soured soon after because Lewis repeatedly assaulted and otherwise abused his wife, one church member said.

Although Lewis was a member of the church, parishioners said he seldom attended services after the marriage.

“They were separated and he wanted her back but he had mistreated her so badly,” said the church member. “He was just so angry. He had a very violent temper.”

Neighbors of the couple said they often heard what sounded like fighting coming from the couple’s home.

A church member speculated that the relatives of the wife may have been shot simply because the gunman associated them with the problems he had been having with his spouse.

According to accounts given during the weekend by the people who were inside the church when the shooting started, two men dressed in black from head to toe with their faces mostly covered, showed up outside the church Friday about 9 p.m. They were both armed with sawed off shotguns.

A church member who had been standing on a porch outside a chapel jumped over a railing and fled. He was shot at but not hit.

One of the armed men then entered the church, walked deliberately up and down the aisle, then pointed the gun at a pew where Patronella Luke and her mother were sitting. He fired and hit Luke in the face. Her husband, who was sitting several rows in front of her, was at some point shot in the leg and arm. Mae Lee was shot in the back as she attempted to flee.