Congregants stunned after pastor shot leaving home

Frantic church members pulled up one after the other on North West 10th Way in Greater Portmore, St Catherine, on Monday afternoon as panic spread with news that their pastor had been shot.

While leaving his home shortly after midday, the Reverend Lynval Lewis, who is the pastor at the Spanish Town Tabernacle and Greater Portmore Tabernacle, was shot several times by a gunman who is believed to have waylaid him.

As he came under gunfire, Lewis lost control of the motorcar he was driving, which veered off the roadway and on to a sidewalk, coming to a halt in a clump of small trees, metres away from his home.

The clergyman was then rushed to hospital.

One congregant told The Gleaner that she last saw Lewis on Sunday night at a family get-together at church.

“This (incident) send my pressure way up. This just come as a shock. We are praying for testimony. Instead of death, a testimony to say, ‘I have been through this and I am still here’,” she told The Gleaner.

Startled residents came out of their homes to examine the bloody scene, trying to piece together what had transpired.

“People a watch him and him nuh know,” one resident said.

Looking at the crash scene, another surmised that Lewis was shot while reversing from his driveway on to the roadway as he normally would.

A community leader told our news team that he was surprised at the attack.

“Me and the man move so good and to see what happen, right now, all now me shock to see a man of his calibre that I know is a man that don’t mix up,” the resident said.

The pastor was reportedly in the company of relatives when the shooting occurred.

There are no reports of other injuries.

“He is my pastor. Last time I saw him was last night (Sunday). It take we by surprise; that man don’t even talk,” one church member told The Gleaner as anxious congregants gathered near the blood-soaked car and roadway, waiting for further news.

“We don’t get any information to say he is stable or not stable. The last thing we heard was that he was on being treated [and] placed on drip,” one male church member said.

The Greater Portmore Criminal Investigation Branch is investigating the shooting.

Up to December 12, the St Catherine South Police Division had seen 100 shootings this year, on par with the figure recorded for the corresponding period in 2021. It had also seen a 15.5 per cent year-on-year decline in murders with 109 people killed this year.

Injuries, robberies and break-ins recorded increases over the period under review, while rape had declined.

Last week Monday, the islandwide murder tally for 2022 stood at 1,442.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com