Former area priest killed while helping someone

A St.Paul man is charged with killing a retired Catholic priest who was giving him a ride to a mental health evaluation.

The Rev. Larry Johnson was killed Thursday afternoon, Aug. 1, around 12:40 p.m., as he gave Nathan Thomas Wondra, 32, a ride to an evaluation. Wonder has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of the 76-year-old retired priest while parked just off Interstate 94 along Prior Avenue. Wondra reportedly told police ‘voices’ told him to strangle Fr. Johnson to ‘save humanity.’

Ordained in 1975, the Rev. Larry Johnson served at St. Wenceslaus in New Prague (1980-1984) and St. Scholastica in Heidelberg (1981-1984). He retired in 2009.

(For the complete story, see the Aug. 8 print edition of The New Prague Times.)