Heavily-armed individuals donning Haiti National Police uniforms kidnapped a pastor, Jean Mary Ferrer Michel, 79, from the Église Jésus Center in Delmas 29, a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince on Oct. 3. Two other church members, Isabelle Devendegis and Norman Weiner, were also taken when the criminals barged in during the Sunday church service, local radio stations reported.
Witnesses said the kidnappers arrived in a Nissan Patrol with government license plates.
The church kidnapping is the second perpetrated reported in one week. On Sept. 26, criminals attacked a different church during a service, killing Pastor Deacon Sylner Lafaille. His wife, Marthe Etienne, was kidnapped and later released.
Members of the Protestant Church called on Haitians to denounce the violence in a strike that followed the fatal attack.