Church leader urges suspect who killed pastor in hit-and-run to 'turn yourself in'
As an evangelical congregation in Florida grieves the loss of their pastor who was struck by a vehicle and killed this week, the church’s senior pastor is urging the driver, who drove away after hitting the pastor, to “turn yourself in.”
Lindsay Brown of New Life Evangelistic Center in Jacksonville was “devoted to his family and to his church — a dedicated father, grandfather and son of God,” the church’s Senior Pastor Bishop Antonio Richardson, told News4Jax.
Brown, who was a Christian minister for about three decades, was killed Wednesday morning as he was taking a walk, and police have no information about the vehicle that struck him. The pastor would go for a walk at about 6 a.m. daily for an hour and 15 minutes.
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“I’m not a revengeful person, we don’t preach that, we don’t promote that. I’m not angry with the person. I don’t know the circumstances that caused this to happen, but I will say to them, ‘Do the right thing. I want you to turn yourself in, allow the authorities to sort things out,” Richardson said.
“I don’t know what happened, but turn yourself in,” the senior pastor added. “This family needs closure, and that closure will not come to full fruition until someone is brought to justice and they are able to make some sense of what happened.”
“It is with tremendous sorrow that we mourn the transition of Pastor Lindsay Brown,” the church said, announcing his passing. “Please keep his family in your prayers as they go through the bereavement process. Pastor Lindsay was a true servant of God! Job well done thy Good and Faithful Servant! You will be missed,” the church wrote on its Facebook page.
Brown, who was going to have another grandchild, leaves behind a wife and children.
“Dedicated, committed, faithful to the ministry,” Richardson described him. “First one to come, last one to leave. And he’s going to be missed. … I don’t know how I’m going to react on Sunday morning when I get up to preach, look to my left, and don’t see him.”
Residents in the area have complained that it’s not unusual for vehicles to hit people and then speed off without rendering aid. Brown was the seventh person to die in a hit-and-run in Duval County this year, according to News4Jax, which reported that no arrests had been made in any of the six previous cases either.
