FALMOUTH, Trelawny — The pastor of Agape Christian Fellowship Church in Falmouth, Trelawny, where 51-year-old Andrea Lowe-Garwood was shot dead last Sunday, said her murder was collateral damage in the warfare against evil and urged worshippers to remain undaunted as they battle ungodly forces.

“Let me tell you, in a battle soldiers are going to die, but there is no turning back, because the battle is on. The fight has begun,” a militant and upbeat Reverend Junior Rutty told the congregation yesterday.

“We will not recant, we will not go back, we will not go under, we will go over victoriously because the one that we serve, He is leading us triumphantly,” Rutty said.

Michael Carter, of Celebration Church in Portmore, St Catherine, concurred. He was among visitors from other churches across the island who worshipped at Agape Christian Fellowship yesterday in a show of solidarity.

Carter said: “There are some persons who will ask where was God” when the gunman struck last week during the praise and worship service. But he underscored that the scripture has not shied away from narrating human suffering. “The real test [is] to see if we are standing for the Lord,” he told congregants.

“Many of our young males are turning to a life of crime to put food on their table. There has to be another way than the life of crime. So, Church, if you bend under cowardice, if church attendance falls next week, if you give up on your faith, if these numbers dwindle, you have said to the set of evil factions in the society that they have won,” Carter preached.

He also slammed insensitive social media users who were in a race to break the story shortly after the killing.

“We got a viral video talking about this [killing] last Sunday. I was really ticked off… other people were telling a story that they had no business talking about so early. We have no guiding light as to how to break a story like this. We are not trained professionals, and everybody was up there on social media, not concerned about points of view, just concerned about views. That thing went viral for people who spoke about the matter between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. But what good is it when somebody’s character has been vilified?” he asked.

Before administering communion Rutty reminded the congregants that the Lord’s Supper was in remembrance of the Israelites who had crossed the Red Sea to escape from bondage in Egypt. As such, he said the Church should use Lowe-Garwood’s killing to gather momentum in its mission.

“We are about to cross over from what happened last Sunday into a new gear, a new flight of what God wants to do in Agape Christian Fellowship, and not only in Agape Christian Fellowship, but those who are connected with what is happening here last Sunday, but we got to move on,” Rutty said.

Yesterday’s service also saw popular Trelawny medical practitioner and reggae artiste Dr Michael Godfrey, and Rutty’s wife, Sharon, ministering in song.

On Saturday the police reported they had charged three men in connection with Lowe-Garwood’s murder.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey identified them as:

• 23-year-old Leon Hines, a storekeeper of a St James address who was the driver of the getaway car. He is charged with murder, illegal possession of firearm, accessory before the fact of murder, accessory after the fact of murder, and conspiracy to commit murder;

• 29-year-old Javan Garwood, otherwise called Janoy, an account analyst who is the stepson of the murder victim. He is charged with murder and conspiracy to murder; and

• Dwight Bingham, the alleged shooter who is charged with murder, conspiracy to murder, and illegal possession of firearm.