MoBay pastor shot, injured
May 12, 2007
MONTEGO BAY, St James -The police were up to late last night seeking the two would-be robbers who shot and injured a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor at his home in the upscale Irwindale community Thursday night.
The wounded pastor, Egnol Grant, head of the Adventist Circuit in the Granville area of the parish, was last night recuperating in hospital after undergoing a five-hour surgery Thursday night.
According to president of the West Jamaica Conference of Seventh-Day Adventist Churches, Pastor Glen Samuels, before going into the operating theatre, Pastor Grant said about 8:30 Thursday night he was about to get out of his car after reaching home when he noticed a shadow. However, before he got out of the vehicle he was attacked by two armed men, one of whom shot him in his abdomen.
The two attackers then proceeded to search the pastor, apparently for money. The armed men, Samuels said, fled the scene as soon as Grant identified himself as a man of the cloth.
A forgiving Samuels said yesterday that the two "might have been some misguided youths", and he urged the Government to offer financial assistance to churches to help with their social intervention programmes.
"I would wish that government would look at some of the programmes that the churches are implementing for the social and moral upliftment of these youngsters and help us with some of these programmes," Samuels said.
"We will not be letting up with social intervention programmes. Many of them (misguided youths) don't have anything to do, no hope. They don't have any leadership in their homes and they seek leadership in the community and the sad thing is they sometimes attach themselves to the wrong kind of leadership. The church must continue its programmes of reaching out to these youngsters," he added.
"The Seventh-Day Adventist Church spends millions of dollars in each calendar year on education and social programmes," said Samuels.
He lamented the high cost over-runs reported in the media on some government projects during both JLP and PNP regimes and suggested that the Government tightens the screw on these spending "so that the resources wasted in those areas can be channelled in the social area".
Author: Horace Hines
Source: Jamaica Observer
