New York, Nov 25 (IANS) An Indian American man, who killed his estranged wife inside a New Jersey church, was arrested near Atlanta in Georgia, US police said Tuesday.Joseph M. Pallipurath, 27, shot his wife Reshma James, 24, at point blank range at 11.44 a.m. Sunday during the weekly mass at the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton.

Pallipurath also shot Dennis John Malloosseril, 25, and Silvy Perincheril, 47, when they tried to stop him from attacking his wife.

All the three were taken to the nearby St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center. James was pronounced dead at about 4 p.m., while Malloosseril died Monday morning. Perincheril was still in a critical condition.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the state police had joined the Clifton City Police in their effort to nab Pallipurath, who had managed to escape from the church.

James Plousis, a US Marshal in New Jersey, said Pallipurath was arrested around midnight Monday in Monroe, near Atlanta in Georgia. Many of his relatives and friends live there. It was not immediately clear if he was armed or offered any resistance at the time of the arrest.

A case of homicide has been registered against Pallipurath and he will be interrogated by the police.

Police said he had driven to New Jersey all the way from Sacramento in California in his green Jeep Wrangler to kill his wife, with whom he had a strained relationship.

Local daily The Record reported that James had moved to California from India in January after an arranged marriage to Pallipurath. However, church members said the relationship soon turned violent.

“He was beating her. She had a restraining order against him,” said Thomas Abraham Lahayil, the church’s vicar.

Reshma James had fled Sacramento and moved in with Perincheril, who used to work as the church’s Sunday school teacher and a nurse at Passaic High School, family members said.