Church Shooter Held Without Bail

A man charged with a bloody rampage that resulted in the death of a priest and parishioner inside a Long Island church was ordered held without bail Wednesday.

Peter Troy, 34, an office clerk who took temporary jobs through an employment agency, looked dazed as he appeared in Nassau District Court before Judge Steven M. Jaeger. He did not speak and did not enter a plea.

Wearing the same clothes he was arrested in, Troy stood silently with a blank look on his face during the brief proceeding.

The judge ordered that Troy be held in protective custody and that he be given medical treatment from facial cuts and injuries sustained in a fight while police arrested him at the boarding house where he rents a bedroom on the second floor.

Troy was ordered held without bail on two charges of second-degree murder and one charge of attempted murder of a police officer. Police said Troy lunged at an officer with a steak knife, slicing his protective vest.

Prosecutors said charges may be upgraded to first-degree murder, which would make Troy eligible for the death penalty if he is found guilty.

Troy's next court date was set for Friday.

Lt. Dennis Farrell, chief of Nassau homicide squad, refused to discuss a motive in the case or detail Troy's mental status but he said reports that Troy once worked for the church and was fired for stealing money from a church collection box were untrue.

Farrell said to the best of their knowledge Troy had no connection to the church at all. He never worked or worshipped there.

Police credited the fast action of parishioner Gerard Denk, a former Vietnam Marine veteran, with helping capture Troy.

After watching Troy pace up and down the center aisle of the church three or four times during Tuesday morning's 9 a.m. service, Denk got up to see what he was doing.

At that moment, police said Troy pulled out a hidden .22-caliber semiautomatic and fired two shots. Farrell said police believe those shots hit both the Rev. Lawrence Penzes, 50, known to his flock as Father Larry, and parishioner Eileen Tosner, 73.

As Troy was firing the gun, Farrell said Denk tackled him. Three or four more shots went off during the scuffle and Troy escaped through a back door.

Farrell said Denk and off-duty Lynbrook officer Lt. Gary Knacke, who was sitting in a pew closer to the alter, chased Troy down Fowler Avenue to the boarding house where Troy rents a room.

Around 4 p.m. police persuaded Troy to come to a stairwell leading to the first floor. As police were talking to him, Troy, armed with a steak knife, lunged at one officer, slicing through part of his protective vest, Farrell said. He said he also tried but failed to stab a second officer.

Susie Morphet, 70, a neighbor of Troy, told reporters on Tuesday that he always "acted a little peculiar" and never greeted her.

"Everyone says `hello.' He would see me come out and go across the street and go in the car, but I never thought he would do something like this," Morphet said.

Both the priest and Tosner, a mother of five who recently lost two of her sons to cancer, died instantly.

Penzes, a Brooklyn native, was ordained in 1978 and has served as pastor at Our Lady of Peace since 1994. The church serves 2,400 families and about 7,500 parishioners.

"He was a wonderful guy," said the Rev. Robert McGuire, who worked with Penzes at St. Pius X church in Plainview in the late 1980s. "He was a very outgoing guy and a very, very generous man."

By Frank Eltman