Four people which included a pastor and a pianist were kidnapped by an armed gunman during a live stream on Facebook in Port-au-Prince.
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The scene took place during a church service at the Seventh Day Adventist Gospel Kreyòl Ministry Church in the town of Diquini on Thursday. Members of the church were performing in a studio next door on Facebook and YouTube when the man approached them on stage and kidnapped them. Dr. Gregory Figaro said that he was there during the incident and viewers thought it was an April Fool’s joke until the man came in with several accomplices.
“It was only after I heard one of the women, the one on the video, crying in the hallway that I realized what had just happened. When we came out of the hallway, we saw that the guys had left,” Figaro told the Miami Herald.
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Police identified the kidnapped victims as Steven Jérôme, Francisco Dorival, pastor Audalus Estimé, and Welmyr Jean-Pierre. Figaro and the two other women who hid from the gunman managed to escape by fleeing from the scene.
The outlet also noted that there has been an increase in kidnappings within the religious community as a similar incident occurred back in December on Christmas Eve. The victims were unharmed and were eventually released.