CLIFTON, N.J., Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A man opened fire in a church in Clifton, N.J., Sunday, killing his estranged wife and critically wounding two other people before fleeing, police said.
The shooting -- just before noon in the vestibule of St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church -- left Reshma James, 24, dead and a 47-year-old woman, described as James's cousin, and a 23-year-old man clinging to life with head wounds, The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger reported.
Police said the shooter, identified as Joseph "Sanish" Pallipurath, 27, of Sacramento, left the scene in a Jeep with a silver handgun used in the shooting. Pallipurath allegedly had driven from California to the Asian-Indian church in New Jersey, where about 200 worshipers were in the sanctuary when gunfire erupted.
Police said James had moved to New Jersey to live with a relative after years of an abusive marriage in California and the couple's native India. She had filed a restraining order against her husband in New Jersey.
"It's a shock, that somebody would have gone into a church like that," Clifton Mayor Jim Anzaldi told The Star-Ledger. "You always hear about those things happening out west. It's a terrible thing."
