Hundreds mourn man killed inside Clifton church

AP Photo
The mother of Dennis John Mallosseril grieves at her son's Thanksgiving Day wake held at the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton on Thursday.

by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger Saturday
November 29, 2008, 3:47 PM - More than 500 people filled the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton today to pay their final respects to a Hawthorne man who was slain in the church last Sunday.

Dennis John Malloosseril, 25, was shot when he tried to intervene in an argument between Reshma James, 24, and her estranged husband, Joseph Pallipurath, 27, of Sacramento, Calif. Authorities say Pallipurath shot James, Malloosseril and James' cousin.

Malloosseril was remembered during today's four-hour service as a gregarious but humble young man who was fiercely dedicated to his church community. His parents, Abraham and Aley, and older sister, Lois, sat in the front pew, a few feet from Malloosseril's open casket.

"Dennis had a gift for loving life and loving people," Malloosseril's father said in a statement read by a relative. "He gave himself up helping a total stranger."

When family members were called to perform a traditional celebratory chant that would normally be done at a wedding, Malloosseril's parents could be heard wailing in grief, while other family members cried openly.

After the service, priests crowded around the casket to chant and perform last rites. Malloosseril's mother, surrounded by crowds of family, collapsed, unable to view her son's body before the casket was finally closed.

Authorities say Pallipurath drove across country to confont his wife. When he arrived at the church last Sunday, Pallipurath pulled out a silver revolver and shot his wife in the head. He then turned the gun on James's cousin, Silvy Perincheril, 47, a teacher at the church's religious school, and Malloosseril.

James, who had left her husband and filed restraining orders against him in California and New Jersey, died at the church. Malloosseril died hours later, while Perincheril remains in critical condition at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson.

Pallipurath, who also goes by the nickname Sanish, fled but was apprehended at a motel in Georgia Tuesday and charged with two counts of murder. He is expected to be returned to New Jersey next week.


Mia Song/The Star-Ledger
Dennis Malloosseril's parents, John and Aley Malloosseril, and his sister, Lois Malloosseril, left, grieve during funeral services today in Clifton for Dennis Malloosseril.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/hundreds_of_mourners_packed_in.html