A man was killed during a ceremony at a Masonic temple in March, when another member fired a gun loaded with real bullets instead of the expected blanks and shot him in the head.
William James, 47, was shot while participating in an induction at the Southside Masonic Lodge, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Albert Eid, 76, of Patchogue, was arrested. The district attorney's office said the .32-caliber pistol used in the shooting was licensed to Eid.
The ceremony was supposed to include a loud noise intended to frighten the new member. The inductee faces the front of the room and a gun, loaded with blanks, is fired near his head. Cans, which are stacked up behind the inductee without his knowledge, are toppled simultaneously with the firing of the pistol, simulating a gunshot.
Eid apparently possessed two guns -- one with blanks and one with real bullets -- and mistakenly used the wrong one.
Carl Fitje, grand master of the New York State Freemasons, released a statement declaring that guns do not play a role in any officially sanctioned lodge ceremonies.
The ceremony-gone-wrong was an initiation into the Fellow Craft, which is the second degree within the multilevel Masonic system. William James had been a member of the lodge for only a few months while Eid had been a member for many years.
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