A man is in custody after the fatal shooting of a beloved Kansas priest

In this undated photo provided by The Leaven shows Rev. Arul Carasala, a pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca, Kan., who was fatally shot Thursday, April 3, 2025. (The Leaven via AP)

SENECA, Kan. — An Oklahoma man is being held on suspicion of fatally shooting a Catholic priest at a church rectory in northeast Kansas, authorities said.

Officers called to the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Seneca on Thursday afternoon found Arul Carasala with gunshot wounds outside the rectory, the Nemaha County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post. The 57-year-old priest was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he died.

Sheriff’s deputies and officers with the Seneca Police Department later arrested Gary Hermesch of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Authorities say Hermesch, 66, is being held in the Nemaha County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.

The Associated Press left a phone message with county prosecutor Brad Lippert seeking additional information.

Authorities have not released a possible motive for the shooting or said whether the suspect and the priest knew each other.

Kris Anderson, the parish’s director of religious education, told the AP on Thursday through tears that she knew few details.

“From what we know, an older man walked up to him (Carasala) and shot him three times,” she said.

The priest’s death left people in shock in Seneca, a city of about 2,100 where Carasala had been the pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church since 2011, according to his profile on the parish website. He was ordained as a priest in 1994 in his native India and had served in Kansas since 2004. He became a U.S. citizen in 2011.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas said in a Facebook post that there was no ongoing threat to the community, but that he recognized the “pain and shock” the priest’s death had brought to the community.

“This senseless act of violence has left us grieving the loss of a beloved priest, leader, and friend,” he wrote.

Seneca is about 60 miles (97 kilometres) north of Topeka, about 90 miles (145 kilometres) northwest of Kansas City and about 300 miles (480 kilometres) north of Tulsa.

The Associated Press