On Sunday, November 5, a shooting took place at the First Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, a rural community in Texas. The attack is the biggest mass shooting that Texas has ever witnessed, claiming the lives of twenty-five victims including one unborn child. The shooter fired multiple rounds from a semi-automatic weapon and attempted to escape the scene with his car, only to die from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after crashing the vehicle.
The Washington Post states that two people were killed outside before Devin Patrick Kelley, the shooter, entered the church during the Sunday morning meeting. Witnesses claim he wore a black fitted tactical vest as he fired bullets into crowds of people in the church. After rushing out of the building, he jumped into his car and sped away while Stephen Willeford, one of the men who attempted to deter him, ran from his house and exchanged brief gunfire with Kelley. After Kelley fled, Willeford approached Johnnie Lagendorff in his car and informed him of the situation. The two of them pursued the shooter for eleven miles, reaching speeds over ninety miles per hour while informing 911 of the shooter’s location. When the men finally caught up to Kelley, his SUV crashed into a ditch, where the authorities later found him dead.
Kelley had served four years in logistics readiness at the Holloman Air base in New Mexico, but was discharged in 2014 for assaulting and threatening his first wife and stepson. Even though he pled guilty to assault charges, no information was entered into the federal database about his conviction, which allowed him to purchase the guns he used in the attack. The charges included aiming his gun at his first wife, Tessa Brennaham, and his stepson, who was a toddler at the time. His marriage with Tessa only lasted a year; she revealed to CBS news that Kelley had “a lot of demons and hatred inside of him.’’
After the shooting, CNN reported that church security measures have increased, with volunteers carrying firearms outside during mass as a precaution. Residents in the area believe that firearms are necessary. People such as Lynn Robbins did not feel threatened when the shooting began because she knew her guns would keep her safe, claiming that “There’s crazy people out there…They don’t glow in the dark. That’s why you have to be prepared.”
A wrongful death claim has been filed on the US Air Force by one of the families who lost nine relatives in the shooting. According to Dallas News, the Holcombe family is suing the Air Force on the grounds of negligence, claiming that keeping the information from entering the data base and the minimal charges against were “a proximate cause” in the death of their relatives. Even still, retired carpenter Greg Zanis is helping the community by making and delivering handmade crosses to support the families in mourning.
The first funerals for the victims of the massacre were during the weekend on the twelfth of November. Members of the church set up twenty-six chairs and printed the names of the victims in gold letters with twenty-six roses. The scriptures that were supposed to be read on the day of the shooting are engraved on the wall. The memorial opened its doors to the public and the media. According to CNN, the pastor nearly broke down into tears, mourning for his fourteen-year-old daughter Annabelle who was killed in the church during the shooting. There were around 500 people that Sunday at the memorial, listening to heartfelt eulogies and grieving together.