New Jersey church shooting suspect captured in Georgia

New York: A California man accused of driving to New Jersey and fatally shooting his estranged wife and another man inside a church has been captured in Georgia.

Joseph M. Pallipurath was arrested around midnight Monday in Monroe, east of Atlanta, said New Jersey district US Marshal James Plousis.

Pallipurath, of Sacramento, is suspected of shooting and killing 24-year-old Reshma James inside the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton, a suburb about 15 miles west of Manhattan.

Also killed was Dennis John Mallosseril, who maintained the church's Web site. Witnesses said had tried to intervene and break up the church rampage.

A third person, James' cousin, Silvy Perincheril, was shot in the head and was hospitalized in critical condition. James had taken out a restraining order against Pallipurath, prosecutors said.

In California, the suspect's father had called on him to surrender, as did relatives of one of the victims in New Jersey.

All three victims were shot once in the head and didn't regain consciousness, depriving investigators of the opportunity to interview them. James died at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, and Mallosseril died three hours later.

The search for Pallipurath, who fled in a vehicle with California license plates, had centered on Georgia, where he has relatives, prosecutors said.

Pallipurath is accused of opening fire Sunday just as the congregation was finishing its prayers for the dead, a staple of weekly worship service. Authorities say he fired more than three times but only three people were hit. No one else was injured.

After fleeing three months ago from what relatives said was an abusive, arranged marriage in California, James moved to New Jersey and stayed with Perincheril, who lives in Hawthorne.

The couple were married just over a year ago in India and moved to Sacramento in January.