Priest Dies in N.Y. Church Shooting

A man with a rifle opened fire Tuesday in a church in this suburban community, slaying a priest during Mass as he stood on the altar and killing an elderly parishioner as she worshiped in a pew.

The suspected gunman fled into a house near Our Lady of Peace Church. After a seven-hour standoff, a police SWAT team forced its way into the building and subdued the man, who officers said lunged at them with a knife.

Father Lawrence Penzes, 50, was shot in the back just as he finished his sermon and had turned to sit down. The bullet that killed Eileen Tosner, 73, hit her in the face.

About 40 people were attending the morning Mass when the attack began. Worshipers who dived to the floor recalled hearing shots and a baby cry. Some thought they were hearing firecrackers until they realized that bullets were being fired.

“I just threw myself on the floor. I saw Father Larry go down,” said Jean Maier, who was in a front row. “ . . . When I finally got up, the lady behind me was dead.”

Clergyman Probably Died on the Altar

Physicians said the clergyman was killed when the bullet that entered his back pierced his heart.

“It is very likely he died on the altar,” said Dr. Dana Monaco, an attending physician at nearby Mercy Medical Center, where the priest was pronounced dead.

Shock waves quickly swept through the normally quiet community on Long Island’s south shore. Parishioners in tears gathered outside the red brick and gray concrete church, which was cordoned off by yellow police tape.

Anxious parents rushed to the church’s school next door. As a precaution, the school’s doors were locked to keep students inside while police sought to capture the gunman.

The suspect, Peter Troy, 34, of Lynbrook, was charged Tuesday night with two counts of second-degree murder and attempted murder, said Nassau County police spokeswoman Joan Eames.

Neighbors said the man had moved into the area several months ago and had acted strangely.

Detectives are investigating whether the suspected gunman could be linked to an incident Monday night in the parking lot of the town hall directly across from the church. Several windows of the car belonging to Lynbrook’s police chief were shattered by gunshots.

After the slayings, detectives said, an off-duty police lieutenant and a parishioner chased the suspected assailant, who fled the church. They managed to wrestle the rifle away from him, but he eluded their grasp. Police quickly traced the man to a nearby house with several apartments, where he was later apprehended.

“The sorrow we all share at this senseless act is beyond human measure,” said Bishop William Murphy of the Rockville Center diocese.

“Our hearts are one with all the parishioners of Our Lady of Peace Church who have lost their good and faithful pastor as well as a devoted parishioner and neighbor,” Murphy said.

Church officials said Penzes, who was born in Brooklyn, was ordained in 1972 and had been pastor at Our Lady of Peace since 1994. The church has about 7,500 worshipers.

Penzes was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force chaplains’ corps and was an activist priest who brought many improvements to the church, including strengthening its finances.

‘He Always Left You With a Phrase’

Parishioners described Penzes as a quiet but dynamic priest who concentrated on the physical and the spiritual needs of his parish.

“It needed new windows, it got new roofing. He made the church look like it would last another 50 years until the next generation,” said John Lucas, 70. “He was very good on homilies, very story-like. He would hold your mind to his thoughts.

“In the end, you walked away with something,” Lucas said. “He always left you with a phrase in the end.”

Another parishioner, Russell Ruvolo, 80, described Penzes as “a very, very good priest, quiet on the outside.”

“He was a very respectable man,” said Ruvolo, who stood in front of the church watching police enter. “Nobody could hate him, but somebody did.”

Edward Hughes, the custodian of the church’s school, said Penzes would drop into the school to talk with children and was “loved by his parishioners.”

Msgr. James P. Kelly of St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Center said Penzes had served in two other Long Island churches before coming to Lynbrook and had a major influence on the parish.

Kathy Guerrero, who stood down the block from the church, which she attended regularly, agreed.

“He was a gentleman. He was one of the best priests I ever met,” she said. “He was a beautiful person. Everyone just loved him.”

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Times staff writer Geraldine Baum contributed to this report.