Priest: Nagy Was a Pleasant, Upbeat Gentleman

The priest who married Sgt. Ken Nagy and his wife Katie at St. Paul’s called Ken Nagy “a good friend and a good policeman.”

Rev. Louis D. Bourgeois serves as the chaplain and first met Nagy when he arrived at in 1993. He became the department’s chaplain six months later.

“He was always a gentleman; Every time I would see him he would be pleasant,” Bourgeois said, saying he always saw Nagy smiling and upbeat as he would see him around town – often crossing children in front of one of the schools on Route 1A. “He would always give me a nice wave.”

Nagy’s funeral Mass will happen at in Salem because that is where Bourgeois is now, after retiring from St. Paul’s in 2010. Bourgeois will preside over Nagy’s funeral Mass on Friday.

Nagy nearly five hours after twice outside the Starbucks in North Beverly. Police launched a manhunt for Nagy, whom they said was armed and dangerous, before he returned to the shooting scene and took his own life in his sport utility vehicle.

When Bourgeois first heard about last Friday’s shooting he said he could not believe it.

“That’s not a rational act,” Bourgeois said. “He was not thinking rationally.”

As department chaplain, Bourgeois said he has not met with the department as a whole but has been there to lend support.

“It’s happened and let’s pick up the pieces and keep going,” he said have been his words for the department’s 12 full-time officers plus support staff and reserve officers.

It has been the most trying and challenging time in his 18 years as department chaplain.

“I have the utmost respect for those people,” Bourgeois said. “They are the greatest men and women.”

Bourgeois said he also got to know Katie Nagy as a parishioner at St. Paul’s. Both Ken and Katie Nagy’s relationship with Bourgeois is why the funeral will be held at Bourgeois’s new home at St. James in Salem, he said.

Besides his wife, Nagy leaves behind two young sons.