Mason shot dead when ritual backfires

A man was killed during a ceremony at a Masonic temple when another member fired a gun loaded with real bullets instead of the expected blanks and shot him in the head.

A 76-year-old man alleged to have fired the shot was arrested in Patchogue, New York state.

William James, 47, was shot while participating in an induction Monday night at the Southside Masonic Lodge, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Albert Eid was arrested and scheduled to be arraigned today. The district attorney’s office said the .32 calibre pistol used in the shooting was licensed to Eid.

Detective Lieutenant Jack Fitzpatrick said the ceremony included a loud noise to frighten the new member. The inductee faces the front of the room and cans are stacked up behind him, he said. A gun is fired near the inductee’s head and the cans are toppled, Fitzpatrick added.

The lieutenant said Eid had two guns – one with blanks and one with real bullets – and he apparently pulled out the wrong one.

Carl Fitje, grand master of the New York State Freemasons, said that guns do not play a role in any officially sanctioned lodge ceremonies.

“We don’t use pistols,” said Steve Mayo, who described himself as a senior deacon of the lodge. “This is not a Masonic ceremony where we bring pistols.”

He said the Monday night ceremony was an initiation into the Fellow Craft, which is the second degree within the multilevel Masonic system.

Mayo said James had been a member of the lodge for a few months while Eid had been a member for many years.

“This is very upsetting, very upsetting that one of our brothers was accidentally killed,” he said.