The American pastor Josh Sullivan was rescued Tuesday in the middle of a shooting between the South African police and his captors that left three dead suspects, authorities said on Wednesday. Sullivan, originally from Tennessee, was Kidnapped gunpoint Duration a prayer meeting in your church in South Africa on the night of April 10.
According to a statement issued by the South Africa Police Service, a specialized unit dedicated to serious crimes, known as the Hawks, led the operation to rescue the 45 -year -old man.
The American was kidnapped from his Baptist Church in Fellowship in the municipality of Motherwell, outside the coastal city of Gqberha, and was rescued from a security house used by his captors in that city.
“The operation followed the verified intelligence in which a coordinated team (or several police units) quickly moved to the identified location,” police said. “As the officers approached the house, they observed a vehicle in the facilities. The suspects inside the vehicle when they saw that the police allegedly tried to flee and opened fire against the team. The officers responded with a tactic of three intensity of intensity of shots in three unnensity fatally wounded fatally.”
Fellowship Baptist Church 
Police said Sullivan was discovered in the same vehicle and “medical staff evaluated it immediately, medical staff evaluated it immediately and is updated in excellent condition.”
Police said that four armed and masked suspects entered the church on Thursday, stole two cell phones and then kidnapped Sullivan, in their car, a Toyota Fortuner, who found himself a short time later in Motherwell.
Reverend Jeremy Hall, a local shepherd, told the French news agency AFP that Sullivan’s kidnapping was probably “related to financing.”
Police spokesman, Captain Andre Beetge, told AFP that the cases are generally delivered to the Hawks unit when rescues are demanded. The kidnappings, even for criminal gangs that take people who believe they can command large bailouts, have increased in South Africa in recent years.
Sullivan was a prayer meeting with about 30 people, including his wife and six children, when armed kidnappers entered their 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 the language school soon and plant a church for the people of Xhosa Speak,” he wrote on the site.
Sullivan has been in Fellowship Baptist Church personnel in Maryville, Tennessee, since February 2012, according to the website.
Sullivan’s wife, Megan, issued a statement through a family spokesman on Saturday that thanks people for “the effusion of love and prayers.”