American pastor Josh Sullivan was rescued Tuesday amid a shootout between South African police and his captors that left three suspects dead, authorities said Wednesday. Sullivan, originally from Tennessee, was abducted at gunpoint during a prayer meeting at his church in South Africa on the evening of April 10.
According to a statement issued by the the South African Police Service, a specialized unit dedicated to serious crime, known as the Hawks, they led the operation to rescue the 45-year-old.
The American was abducted from his Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell Township, outside the coastal city of Gqeberha, and was rescued from a safehouse being used by his captors in that city.
“The operation followed verified intelligence wherein a coordinated team (of several police units) moved swiftly to the identified location,” police said. “As officers approached the house, they observed a vehicle on the premises. The suspects inside the vehicle upon seeing law enforcement allegedly attempted to flee and opened fire on the team. The officers responded with tactical precision, leading to a high-intensity shootout in which three unidentified suspects were fatally wounded.”
Fellowship Baptist Church
Police said Sullivan was discovered in the same vehicle and “miraculously unharmed, he was immediately assessed by medical personnel and is currently in an excellent condition.”
Police have said that four armed, masked male suspects entered the church on Thursday, stole two cellphones and then abducted Sullivan, in his car, a Toyota Fortuner, which was found a short time later in Motherwell.
Rev. Jeremy Hall, a local pastor, told French news agency AFP that Sullivan’s abduction was likely “financially related.”
Police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge told AFP that cases are typically turned over to the Hawks unit when ransoms are demanded. Kidnappings, including by criminal gangs taking people they think can command large ransoms, have increased in South Africa in recent years.
Sullivan was holding a prayer meeting with about 30 people, including his wife and six children, when the armed kidnappers entered his church, Hall said.
Sullivan arrived in South Africa with his family from Tennessee in November 2018, according to his personal website.
“We are looking to finish language school soon and plant a church to the Xhosa speaking people,” he wrote on the site.
Sullivan has been on the staff at Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, since February of 2012, according to the website.
Sullivan’s wife Megan released a statement through a family spokesperson on Saturday thanking people for “the outpouring of love and prayers.”
