Pastor & Wife Arrested After 8 Disabled People Were Found Locked In Their Basement!
24.01.2022 - 23:37
/ perezhilton.com
A Georgia pastor and his wife have been arrested after allegedly holding at least eight physically and mentally disabled people against their will.
Those are the claims being made by law enforcement officials in Griffin, Georgia — a city about an hour north of Atlanta — after 55-year-old Curtis Keith Bankston and his wife, 56-year-old Sophia Simm-Bankston (both pictured in mugshots, above), were arrested late last week.
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According to cops, first responders became aware of the situation after arriving to an emergency call about a person apparently having a seizure at a home in the city. Once there, paramedics were forced to climb through a window to reach the patient down in the basement of the house because the door was locked from the outside with a dead-bolt, according to NBC News.
Paramedics reported the concerning situation to police, who began to investigate. Quickly, cops determined a group of people had been locked in the basement as part of what the news outlet termed an “unlicensed group home.” Upon further investigation, police uncovered that Bankston and his wife were the ones renting the house and operating the group living situation without a license.
In a statement released to the media, the Griffin Police Department claims Bankston and his wife kept the residents “locked in” during certain times of day, and “had essentially imprisoned them against their will.” Cops also say “most, if not all” of the individuals in the basement were “mentally and/or physically disabled,” with their ages ranging from 25 to 65.
The unlicensed group home was being run under an organization known as One Step of Faith 2nd Chance Church, with