He walked around college hunched over, wearing a Sherlock Holmes-style hat with the flaps down. He slept with his shoes on, yelled while alone in hisroom, and walked repeatedly out to his car and back again.
And he kept a "Lynbrook Church Death List" in his room, the police said yesterday.
The list of 24 names was one of only a few details the authorities disclosed about Peter J. Troy, a sporadic college student who they said walked into morning Mass on Tuesday at a Roman Catholic church on Long Island, pulled a .22- caliber rifle from under his raincoat and fatally shot the Rev. Lawrence M. Penzes, 50, and Eileen Tosner, 73.
As Mr. Troy, 34, was arraigned on murder charges yesterday, the Nassau County police would not discuss a motive for the killings at the church, Our Lady of Peace in Lynbrook, N.Y. Though he took intentional aim at the priest, they said, there was no evidence they knew each other.
Even the "Death List" remained puzzling because it did not name either victim. The police said they were not sure who the people named on the list were, or even if all of them existed. Some of the entries were simply first names, the police said, while others included addresses. The police contacted some of those named last night, but said none of them knew Mr. Troy.