MONTEGO BAY, St James – Up to late last night the St James police were interrogating two suspects in connection with Wednesday night’s murder of 50-year-old pastor, Desmond Rankine.

Rankine was gunned down as he was heading home from church with his eight-year-old son, nine-year-old daughter and an elderly woman.

Neither the woman nor Rankine’s two children were hurt.

The Granville and Montego Bay CIB, which is investigating, picked up the two suspects shortly after the murder Wednesday night.

Rankine, who hailed from Norwood, St James, was pastor of the Irwin Community Church of the Nazarene, and served as mission director and technical engineer of the Global Evangelism Centre.

Police reports are that about 10:30 pm, Rankine was driving his Toyota Corolla Hiace bus home after a service at his church in Tucker, Irwin, when on reaching Tucker Avenue, two men standing on the roadside opened fire into the vehicle, hitting him. He drove about two chains before he collapsed behind the wheels. He was later taken to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The police found a number of .380 shells at the crime scene.

Yesterday, the church community was still in shock. Reverend Lionel Brown, head of the districts of Church of the Nazarene churches in western Jamaica, expressed disbelief.

“All of us we found it very hard to believe that it is real, and to this date, many are in shock.”