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Shooting At N.J. Church Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Injured

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Nov 23, 2008 2:50 pm US/Pacific

Shooting At N.J. Church Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Injured

PATERSON, N.J. (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Clifton, N.J. Police Detective Capt. Robert Rowan identified the gunman as 27-year-old Joseph M. Pallipurath.
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A gunman who police said drove across the country in pursuit of his estranged wife shot and killed her during an attack at a church service Sunday that seriously wounded two other people and sent congregants scrambling for safety.

Some 200 people were attending services inside the Asian-Indian house of worship -- St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church on Third Street in Clifton, Passaic County -- when the gunman opened fire before noon.

Multiple 9-1-1 calls were said to come from inside the church.

Churchgoers described bedlam inside the church after gunshots rang out.

"Kids were crying. People were screaming," Suja Alummoottil told The Record of Bergen County. "It was chaotic."

Clifton Police Detective Capt. Robert Rowan identified the woman as 24-year-old Reshma James and the gunman as 27-year-old Joseph M. Pallipurath of Sacramento, Calif., James' estranged husband.

Police did not identify the other two victims, but Rowan said all three were shot in the head and that the other two, a 47-year-old woman and 23-year-old man, were in critical condition.

A spokeswoman for St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, where the victims were being treated, declined to comment on their conditions.

Alummoottil, 40, said Pallipurath appeared angry when he confronted James in the church's vestibule as the service was concluding. She said she went to get help and, a few seconds later, heard one gunshot and then two more.

Police said Pallipurath was driving a green 2004 Jeep with California license plates and a black soft top. He was wearing a black hooded sweat shirt and was believed to be carrying a silver handgun.

Rowan said James had recently moved from California to New Jersey to escape an abusive marriage and had filed a restraining order against Pallipurath.

Members of the church are mostly first generation immigrants and their children from the southern Indian state of Kerala. The church's Web site says the regular Sunday sermon begins at 11:15 a.m.