Easter services mourn victims in Central Islip killings

Sorrow and solidarity over the murders of four young men found in a Central Islip park last week remained fresh in Easter Sunday services offered by Long Island’s Catholic bishop and the pastors and deacons in communities where the victims lived.

“God, please stop these acts of evil,” said Deacon Jay Alvarado of St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Church in Brentwood. “Stop these atrocities to our communities and to our children.”

Suffolk County police have said they believed that members of a violent, MS-13 gang are likely connected to the Central Islip slayings. Last month, federal prosecutors charged more than half a dozen members in three Brentwood murders.

At St. John of God Roman Catholic Church in Central Islip, less than half a mile from the park where the four bodies were found, the Rev. Christopher Nowak asserted that the lessons of Easter were still relevant.

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