MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The doors of the church were not open to anyone on Monday.
Redemptive Live Church near Airways and Director’s Row in the airport area had it’s doors locked just days after it’s pastor was arrested for rape.
People WREG spoke to in the neighborhood had not seen him before but were still shocked at the allegations.
“It’s crucial. It’s ridiculous how there’re things going on now,” one man said.
Roker was accused of raping a family member with a metal object.
His wife was listed in the affidavit as a witness.
“I have no idea who Damond Roker is,” a man who lives at an address listed for Roker said.
“I’ve never heard his name before,” Mark Whitby told WREG.
Those near an address police have listed for the suspect said he does not live there.
“We’re Christians, we have a pastor, and it would certainly destroy me to think that my pastor had something in his background like that,” Whitby explained.
WREG uncovered the so-called bishop has been locked up twice for domestic violence and passing bad checks.
In 2006, Roker spent time in jail and paid a fine for attacking his fiancee.
Police said he grabbed her neck and “shoved her inside the house.”
“I said it was very sickening that you can’t trust someone in your own family — that would do something like that,” Karen Whitby said.
If found guilty, many hope something is done to prevent something like this from happening again.
“They should do him they way he did someone else. They should do him the way he did someone,” the man said.
Roker was given a $300,000 bond and expected in court on Tuesday.