US pastor Josh Sullivan, who was kidnapped last week during a church service in South Africa, has been rescued after a dramatic shoot-out with police, which left three suspects dead, authorities reported.
Sullivan, 45, was found unharmed in the township of Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday evening. He had been abducted on Thursday during a service at Fellowship Baptist Church, where he was pastor.
Police believe the kidnappers were familiar with the family’s movements and had made a ransom demand following the abduction. The Hawks, South Africa’s elite police unit, acted on “verified intelligence” to locate the suspects, launching a swift operation to free Sullivan.
According to Hawks spokesperson Avele Fumba, when officers approached the house where Sullivan was being held, the suspects tried to escape in a vehicle while firing at the police. “The officers responded with tactical precision, leading to a high-intensity shootout in which three unidentified suspects were fatally wounded,” Fumba said.
Kidnappings for ransom have surged in South Africa over the past decade, making Sullivan’s case part of a troubling trend. Since his abduction, his family and friends had been pleading for his safe return.
Jeremy Hall, the Sullivan family’s spokesman, shared that Sullivan was at the church with his wife and children when the armed men took him. “They knew his name,” Hall told local media.
Sullivan, a “church planting missionary,” moved to South Africa in 2018 with his family to establish a church for Xhosa-speaking people, according to his personal website.
