According to police and accounts, an unstable Oklahoma shooter shot and killed a beloved small-town priest outside a Catholic church in Kansas Thursday afternoon, just a few feet from where young children were playing outside the parish’s local school.
Around 3 p.m., the fourth graders heard gunfire break out inside the rectory of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca, where 57-year-old Rev. Raj “Arul” Balaswamy Carasala was allegedly killed by Gary Hermesch, 66, according to the Kansas City Star.
According to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Carasala passed away from his wounds at a nearby hospital after being discovered bleeding outside his home at the church.
Hermesch, who was born and raised in the Seneca area but now resides in Tulsa, reportedly went to the Nemaha County Sheriff’s Office, where his brother works as a dispatcher, and turned himself in.
Approximately two hours northwest of Kansas City is Seneca.
Authorities announced on Friday that Hermesch was charged with first-degree murder.
Investigators did not uncover a motive.
In the 2,100-person village, grieving locals described Hermesch as a local native who was “kind of a loner,” according to one man.
The suspect also used to submit “kind of off-the-wall” letters to a local newspaper, according to local Jim Runnebaum, who spoke to the KC Star.
A few of the letters criticized the Catholic church for becoming too contemporary and referred to it as the “fake Catholic church.”
In a 2021 letter, he compared President Trump to the late President John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic elected to the White House, and in a 2022 letter, he allegedly blamed the Second Vatican Council and Jews for harming the church.
“JFK was always ‘the man’, whether it be a debate, speech, press conference, or whatever, but not in the sense where he tried to ‘dominate and crush’ the way Trump does,” Hermesch said.
“Why? Because even though he obviously had a lot of trouble living up to it, he at least lived in a time when he had a properly formed conscience (knowledge of the difference between right and wrong), and everybody knows knowledge is power.”
According to a biography on the church’s website, Carasala was ordained in 1994 and took over as pastor in 2011.
The community cherished the Indian immigrant as a “faithful” priest.
The terrible murder left the locals in disbelief.
Mike Haug, who was outside with his wife in their backyard when the shooting occurred, described it as a “terrible thing.”
“The world gets crazier and crazier.”
According to Lisa Kidd, her two small children who go to the school are “utterly devastated.”
“As a parent, you’re grieving, but then you see your kids completely heartbroken and asking why. And you can’t tell them,” she stated.
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