Mere hours after three persons lay dead following an alleged ritual human sacrifice gone wrong, supporters of cult leader Kevin Smith have seemingly launched a GoFundMe campaign in his defence. 

According to the fundraising organiser Robert Smith, the US$30,000 (or over J$4.5 million) target, which went live this morning (October 19), will go towards the legal fees of Smith and others implicated in the deaths of congregants. 

“All members of pathway International let us raised the funds required for lawyer(s) to defend Crown bishop His Excellency Dr Kevin Smith and other members,now is the time to stand up against our adversaries. 999 (sic),” the disclaimer wrote.

Our Today could not confirm whether the campaign organiser, Robert Smith, was connected to Pathways International or acting on its behalf in any way.

The self-proclaimed ‘God’ Kevin Smith on Sunday afternoon told his congregation islandwide to make their way to the Albion Road-based Pathways Christian Cathedral (PCC), as his ‘ark was about to load the souls of his flock’. 

Horrors greeted Smith’s faithful ‘throng’ that night when orders were reportedly given to commence the sacrifice of people. 

Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson, speaking with reporters outside the blood-stained floors of the PCC on Monday, said an injured woman who disobeyed Smith’s demands first brought the authorities’ attention to the imminent risk to the 144 persons who were said to have gathered in Montego Bay.

“A congregant who had been injured, apparently when she chose to disobey instructions given to her by the leader (Kevin Smith), reported to the police that she had been injured and other information that led us to believe persons here were at risk,” Commissioner Anderson explained.

“We are aware that 144 congregants had been told to meet here and, on responding to that report and coming here, the first team of police that arrived were shot at and they waited on reinforcements to come. We were very concerned some form of ritualised killing was going to take place here and so we did an entry last night,” he added.

Watch

On the lawmen’s approach, several injured persons were found and the premises were secured. Among the 144 congregants, 14 of them were children and 31 were women, according to the top cop.

Alleged witnesses say a woman’s throat was slashed in the ritual and petrified congregants, watched the sacrifices before gunshots rang out sometime around 7:00 pm.

READ: Fatal ‘cult’ firefight leaves several dead and injured, more arrested in Montego Bay