‘Kill the police if they enter’

A police constable on Thursday testified in the murder trial of Andre Ruddock that when he and a team of three other cops arrived at Pathways International Restoration Ministries in Albion, St James, on October 17, 2021, he heard a loud voice giving instructions to kill them if they tried to enter the church premises.

Ruddock is on trial for murder in relation to the death of 39-year-old Taneka Gardner at the church during an alleged human sacrifice ritual, ordered by the now-deceased pastor of the church, Kevin Smith.

Ruddock is accused of cutting Gardner’s throat, although Anthony Williams, the attorney for the defendant, has suggested that it was the pastor who killed the woman.