There was a huge shock in the African community of Houston, Texas after the bodies of Israel Ahimbisibwe, his wife, and their 5-year-old son were discovered in their apartment. Ahimbisibwe was the pastor of Redeemer Episcopal Church of Houston and resided in the 800 block of Strey Lane, south of Memorial City Mall, the African Sun Times reports.
Firefighters found the bodies after concerned church members, Keever and Brooke Wallace, called them to request a welfare report. Wallace grew alarmed when the pastor and his family did not appear at church on Sunday. He and his wife visited the apartment on Sunday evening, but received no response. When they still could not reach Ahimbisibwe on Monday, they contacted the Houston Fire Department.
“He didn’t show up for church yesterday afternoon, which is totally out of character for them not to let us know, and didn’t respond to text or phone calls,” said Wallace.
The Houston Fire Department found the gruesome scene of Ahimbisibwer, Dorcas, and their little boy, Jay, beaten to death. There was no evidence that someone had forced their way into the apartment.
“I will say that they did suffer some type of unknown wounds,” Houston Police Department spokesman Victor Senties reported to a local news station. “It is being investigated as a homicide.”
“This is a horrific and awful tragedy,” C. Andrew Doyle, Bishop of Texas, said in a statement release from the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. “We are in touch with the police and Israel’s family here in Houston. Please keep the Ahimbisibwe and Redeemer families in your prayers.”
“It’s a shock,” Keever Wallace said. “This is just a shock. I don’t know how to make any sense of this at all.”
“We’re in a state of shock,” said Nancy Taylor, the church’s secretary. “We cannot think of anything — he never talked about any type of problem or situation that would lead us to think of someone who could have done this.”
Ahimbisibwe, a Uganda native, came to America with his family in the early 2000s to pursue an education at Harvard Divinity School. He left Massachusetts and moved to Texas so that he could attend Rice University, where he earned a master’s and doctorate.
The family leaves behind two older sons, Emmanuel and Issac, who did not live in the Houston apartment. Reportedly, one attends a boarding school in California, while the other plans to enlist in the Marines soon.
