{"id":30843,"date":"2024-08-13T02:51:07","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T07:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30843"},"modified":"2024-08-13T02:51:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T07:51:17","slug":"site-of-deadliest-church-shooting-in-u-s-history-torn-down-despite-objections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30843","title":{"rendered":"Site of deadliest church shooting in U.S. history torn down despite objections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas \u2014 Crews on Monday tore down a Texas church where a gunman\u2002killed more than two dozen worshippers in 2017<\/a>, using heavy machinery to raze the small building even after some families sought to preserve the scene of\u2002the deadliest church shooting<\/a> in U.S. history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A judge cleared the way<\/a> last month for the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs to tear down the sanctuary where the attack took place, which until now had been kept as a memorial. Church members voted in 2021 to tear it down, but some families in the community of less than 1,000 people filed a lawsuit hoping for a new vote on the building\u2019s fate.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities put the number of dead in the Nov. 5, 2017, shooting at 26 people, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. After the shooting, the interior of the sanctuary was painted white and chairs with the names of those who were killed were placed there. A new church<\/a> was completed for the congregation about a year and a half after the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Riley, an 86-year-old member of the church, watched with sadness and disappointment as the long arm of a yellow excavator swung a heavy claw into the building over and over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe devil got his way,\u201d Riley said, \u201cI would not be the man I am without that church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he would pray for God to \u201cpunish the ones\u201d who put the demolition in motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was God\u2019s house, not their house,\u201d Riley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many in the community, the sanctuary was a place of solace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, visited often over the years, calling it a place where \u201cyou feel the comfort of everybody that was lost there.\u201d Among those killed in the shooting were a woman who was like a daughter to Smith \u2014 Joann Ward \u2014 and Ward\u2019s two daughters, ages 7 and 5.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith watched Monday as the memorial sanctuary was torn down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am sad, angry, hurt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early July, a Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order<\/a> sought by some families. But another judge later denied a request to extend that order, setting in motion the demolition. In court filings, attorneys for the church called the structure a \u201cconstant and very painful reminder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attorneys for the church argued that it was within its rights to demolish the memorial, while the attorney for the families who filed the lawsuit said they were just hoping to get a new vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very somber day for us,\u201d said Amber Holder, a church member who was a plaintiff in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said she wasn\u2019t at the service on the day of the shooting but arrived soon after. As a teen, she was taken in by the family of the pastor, whose 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, was among those killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holder said the church had become a piece of history and that the scars on the building from that day, including bullet holes, were a powerful reminder of what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTearing it down, no good comes from that,\u201d Holder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that some church members were wrongfully removed from the church roster before the vote was taken. In a court filing, the church denied the allegations in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A woman who answered the phone at the church said Monday that she had no comment then hung up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man who opened fire in the church, Devin Patrick Kelley, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was chased by bystanders and crashed his car. Investigators have said the shooting appeared to stem from a domestic dispute involving Kelley and his mother-in-law, who sometimes attended services at the church but was not present on the day of the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communities across the U.S. have grappled with what should happen\u2002to the sites of mass shootings.<\/a> Last month, demolition began<\/a> on the three-story building where 17 people<\/a> died in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School<\/a> in Parkland, Florida. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School<\/a> in Connecticut, it was torn down and replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tops Friendly Markets<\/a> in Buffalo, New York, and the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church<\/a> in Charleston, South Carolina, where racist mass shootings happened, both reopened. In Colorado, Columbine High School<\/a> still stands, though its library, where most of the victims were killed, was replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Texas, officials closed\u2002Robb Elementary\u2002in Uvalde<\/a> after the 2022 shooting there and plan to demolish the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas \u2014 Crews on Monday tore down a Texas church where a gunman\u2002killed more than two dozen worshippers in 2017, using heavy machinery to raze the small building even after some families sought to preserve the scene of\u2002the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history. A judge cleared the way last month for the First Baptist Church of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[2223,5404,1530,1298],"class_list":["post-30843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-church","tag-demolition","tag-shooting","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30845,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30843\/revisions\/30845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}