Chosen as a child to lead his Central African village as a witch doctor, Raphael Happy-Ikenwilo claimed he found God and traveled to the United States to perform spiritual healing on cancer patients.
Using a small basement in a house off Liberty Road for his church, over the last year, the unorthodox pastor found a believer in a woman whose husband, 41-year-old Daniel Degoto, resented it.
"The suspect... he noticed a change in his wife's behavior and he connected this change to her being involved in this church with this pastor,” said Cpl. Shawn Vinson of the Baltimore County Police Department. “The suspect was not a member of this church and he felt that he couldn't take it anymore---what was building up over quite some time."
It all came to a head on Saturday when both men headed to the church with their respective wives in tow; one man bent on saving lives and the other determined to take one.
"When the pastor pulled into the parking lot with his wife, the suspect struck him with his vehicle,” said Vinson. “After striking the pastor, the suspect got out of the car with a large knife and struck the pastor several times, stabbing him."
Degoto jumped back into his van and drove away later turning himself in to police in Howard County.
The pastor died six hours after the attack leaving behind a legacy of using faith to try to battle the demons he blamed for some cancers, but unable to prevent the one that drove Daniel Degoto to take his life.
