Tracey Sydnor, executive pastor of Upper Room Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Brooklyn), was stabbed to death several times and her son was arrested as a suspect by the NYPD.
The pastor of 61 was stabbed in a domestic dispute with her son Kenji Francis (40), inside the house they shared on Wyona Street near Livonia Avenue, East New York, on Saturday shortly after 2 pm
The nun, stabbed at least 15 times, was found by her brother, who called the police. Sydnor was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Her son Francis was arrested at the scene and charged with manslaughter.
The son admitted to the crime, prosecutors said yesterday. He has no prior criminal or psychiatric record, according to police. As of yesterday no further information was known about the family dispute, reported New York Post.
Sydnor had been appointed to the position of pastor only two and a half months ago. “You didn’t hide your love for God,” her friend Yvonne Chambers wrote on Facebook. “I am grateful for our conversations about how you knew you were called to ministry. Being deaf, I envied your beautiful voice in a good way. I am grateful that we were finally able to celebrate your 60 birthday. I was looking forward to our future road trips before and after you retired. Although I do not understand God’s plan, he has spoken and we are all trying to understand and accept his will”.