TX Church Shooting Leaves 27 Dead

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS — When a tranquil small town worship service erupted in deadly gunfire Sunday morning, the largest mass shooting in modern Texas history quickly claimed 27 lives and left at least another 20 injured, some critically.

It occurred shortly after 11 a.m. when a man dressed in black tactical gear, wearing a ballistic vest and bearing an assault rifle attacked the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, shooting first from the outside and then again after entering the worship hall.

After being shot at by a local person armed with a rifle, he dropped his weapon and sped away, authorities said.

The dead ranging in age from 5 to 72, reportedly included small children, a pregnant woman and the daughter of the church pastor who was out of town.

“From what I heard, someone just walked in and started shooting,” said Amanda Mosel, whose 13-year-old goddaughter was among the slain.

With tears in her eyes, the 34-year-old stood outside the Sutherland Springs Community Building where residents gathered following the shooting.

“There’s maybe 50 of us. It’s a small tight-knit church,” said Mosel, who “sadly” didn’t attend church this Sunday.

The shooting suspect, identified by two law enforcement sources as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, of New Braunfels, was killed about 5 miles away in Guadalupe County when he crashed his vehicle while attempting to escape.

Little could be learned Sunday about Kelley, who was kicked out of the Air Force in 2014 for bad conduct. His possible contacts with the Sutherland Springs church or community were unclear, as were his motives for the attack.

The injured were taken to Brooke Army Medical Center and area hospitals with trauma centers, including five adults and four children taken to University Health System.

“We all know what happened today. It’s something we all say does not happen in small towns, but we found out today that it does,” Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt said in a news conference Sunday afternoon in nearby Stockdale.

Officials however, declined to confirm the identity of the shooter beyond saying he was a young white male.

At the news conference, Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to apply the full resources of the Texas Department of Public Safety to the case.

“The tragedy is worse, of course, because it happened in a church,” the governor said.

“We want to piece the puzzle together before we provide any misinformation and we want to meet with family members before we release information,” he said.

Among those also attending the news conference were 81st District Attorney Audrey Louis, DPS Regional Director Freeman Martin and Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.

Speaking from Japan, President Donald Trump condemned the shooting as “an act of evil” that occurred “while the victims were in their place of worship.”

“All of America is praying to God to help the wounded and the families of the victims. We will never ever leave their side. Ever.” he vowed.

The Sutherland Springs church follows by more than two years the attack on the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. in which white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine Africa-Americans.

It’s also the largest mass killing in Texas since 23 died in an 1991 attack on a Luby’s restaurant in Killeen.

According to the website, Mass Shooting Tracker, the attack in Sutherland Springs was the 377th to occur in the country this year. The total killed through Sunday was 531 and another 1,625 have been wounded.

The highest monthly total came in October when 94 people were killed and 348, after the worst mass killing in the nation’s history. On Oct. 1, a lone gunman in Las Vegas opened fire on a country music event, killing 59, including himself, and wounding more than 200.

Once a vaunted tourist destination known as the “Saratoga of the South,” Sutherland Springs went into a long decline after a massive flood destroyed its pools and pavilions a century ago. About 400 people live there now, many lower and middle income, who commute to San Antonio for work.

Hours after the shooting, Nick Uhlig, who wasn’t at the First Baptist Church when the shooting occurred, spoke about his cousin Crystal Holcomb, 8 months pregnant, and three of her five children, who were killed.

Holcomb didn't drink, he said, and she wasn't a partygoer. She liked to cook, and care for her children. One of them, a 3 year old, was in critical condition.

“They’re trying to unlodge a bullet from her brain,” he said. “And you know, bullets and 3-year-olds don’t really mix.”

Uhlig, a third-generation Sutherland Springs resident, said, “the people are everything” here.

He expressed a wish that the shooter had visited the church and allowed the believers there to “save him” before he committed such a crime.

According to DPS Regional Director Freeman Martin, the shooting suspect first was seen at a Valero station in town.

“The suspect crossed the street to the church, exited his vehicle and began firing at the church,” Martin said.

The suspect then entered the church and continued to fire, and upon exiting was shot at by a local resident, he added.

“The suspect dropped his rifle, which was Ruger AR assault type rifle, and fled from the church. Our local citizen pursued the suspect at that time,” Martin said.

Fleeing north, the suspect crashed his car at the Guadalupe-Comal County line and was found deceased in his vehicle.

“At this time, we don’t know if it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, or if he was shot by our local resident who engaged him in gunfire,” Martin added.

At least 10 victims were taken to Connally Memorial Medical Center in Floresville, said spokeswoman Megan Posey, who added there were multiple victims with gunshot wounds, and that some had to be taken by helicopter to a different treatment center.

At the hospital, friends gathered in small groups. Three young girls sitting on the curb outside the main entrance all were crying. None of them could talk. Another woman about 20 feet away was on her cellphone, crying as she held a conversation.

A young man standing outside the hospital, his head bandaged and his right arm taped from where an IV had been put in, said he had been wounded in the shooting and that his father had been killed.

His mother was in another hospital. He declined to talk but expressed faith that they would pull through with God’s help.

As a steady stream of people drove into the parking lot and entered the medical center emergency room, a young woman sobbed while talking on her cellphone. Nearby, a man sat on a bench, tears streaming down his face.

“It’s awful,”Susan Farrell, a 62-year-old certified nurse’ aide, said while sitting outside the hospital’ ER. “I had a lot of patients in Sutherland Springs and I know their families.

“A lot of them attended that church. A lot of poor families went there to get food because they had a good bank there. It’s just awful,” she said, sobbing. “That’s all.”

David Brown and his wife, Myris, who work at a Houston pizza parlor, saw a text message from his sister flash on her phone saying, “Shooting at mom’s church.”

“I thought this is a sick joke,” she said.

The family drove from Houston to Floresville, arriving a little before 4:30 p.m. David Brown said his mother, Farida, 73, had been shot four times in both legs and was at Connally Memorial. Her cellphone was thought to have deflected one bullet.

“We don’t even know who the shooter was,” David Brown said. “We heard he went to a gas station and was chased by the police and he’s dead now.”

Another text message flashed over Myris Brown’s phone as they stood outside the ER speaking with a reporter.

“The pastor’s daughter has passed. She was 14,” she said.

Brandy Ramos said she arrived at the church after the shooting, and that her grandmother, Farida, had hidden in a pew as the gunman fired.

“We were there at there at the aftermath, we saw a lot of magazines that load up into the gun. There were quite a handful in front of the church, so you can tell he had shot a lot outside before he went inside,” she said.

Ramos didn’t want to go into vivid detail about what she saw at the church, saying, “It’s just so gory. Let’s just say that the people who were wounded, they had put them on the stretchers and taken them out to the front of the church.

“Unfortunately, we did see one of the bodies go into a body bag. The other ones were being labeled either a category 1, 2 depending on the level of how much they were hurt. My grandmother was a 2 because I guess it wasn’t life threatening.”

Rod Green, 71, an elder at the First Baptist Church, said he went to a yard sale Sunday morning instead of attending services.

Green, who says he usually carries a gun to church, later got a call from Frank Pomeroy, the church’s pastor, who was in Oklahoma attending a class. He learned there had been a great tragedy.

Green said the church is known for giving toys to poor children each Christmas, an event Green organizes. Planning had just begun for this year’s give-away program.

Now, many of the leaders of the church are dead.

“A lot of families go there, and a lot of them perished,” he said.

Green, who moved to Sutherland Springs 14 years ago, said the community is very poor, mostly Hispanic. Still, he said the community was close-knit and had held a town parade last weekend.

“I always say we’re a two-light town, one is blinking yellow and the other is blinking red,” Green said.

A Sutherland Springs resident who lives near the church said the gunshots sounded like “somebody was banging a piece of wood” and she wasn’t sure what the loud noises were at first.

She heard a rapid succession of “pop-pop-pop” sounds, then a pause, then another burst of pops. The pattern kept repeating itself. She looked at the church but saw no activity.

Minutes later, police cars swarmed through the neighborhood.

“I’m shocked by it,” said the neighbor, who declined to provide her name. She’s lived in Sutherland Springs for nearly 20 years and enjoyed the community’s quiet, friendly atmosphere. “It’s really unbelievable.”

Karrie Matula, 38, who works at the 87 Ice House, about 50 yards from the church, also heard shots about 11:30 and saw the first responders rushing in moments later.

“We heard about 20 shots, maybe more, it was automatic weapons. It was rapid fire,” she said, several hours later.

“I knew about three or four people (at the church) right off the top of my head, but luckily they weren’t there today,” she said.

Matula, who has lived in Sutherland Springs about six years, said: “It’s a very tight-knit community. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone helps everyone. Most people are third or fourth generation.”

“Nothing bad really happens in Sutherland Springs. Petty stuff like breaking into a car or shoplifting a beer. Nothing major. The worst things that happen out here are bad car accidents,” she added.

“To have something like this happen is unconscionable. It’s a town no one ever heard of until now,” she said.

As news of the tragedy spread rapidly across the nation, elected officials expressed their sympathy and support for Sutherland Springs.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said: “Terrible news coming out of Sutherland Springs, TX. I’m monitoring developments and am praying for the shooting victims.”

“Our hearts go out to those affected by this shooting in Sutherland Springs, TX and we stand with them in this tragedy and later in trying to understand and prevent such senseless violence,” read a news release from Gyl Switzer, Executive Director of Texas Gun Sense, a statewide nonprofit and nonpartisn organization that advocates evidence-based policies to reduce gun injuries and death.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who said Sutherland Springs “holds a special place in my heart” described the people there “as fine an example of Texans and Americans as you will find anywhere in the country,” adding: “We will continue to be there for them as we get through this tragedy together.”

State Sen. Judith Zaffirini D-Laredo expressed her horror at the shooting, adding: “This tragedy was especially sickening because the victims included children and because it happened in a place that is meant to be a sanctuary — a place of worship.”

As night mercifully descended across South Texas, putting to rest a day none here ever will forget, a prayer meeting was held at the First Baptist Church of La Vernia for those who perished.

David Copeland was thinking about a man he knew whose three grandchildren were shot in the attack, and of others at the church.

"It's a shock. I’m really at a loss for words. I knew five or six people. I can’t believe it happened,” said Copeland, 41, of La Vernia.

But despite the terrible tragedy, he said, the believers must not lose hope or faith.

"Don't let one senseless act of violence turn you away from church or God, because it's not his fault, it's not his plan, his desire for bad things to happen in this world," he said.

Staff Writers Caleb Downs, Kelsey Bradshaw, Nicole Bautista, Guillermo Contreras, Silvia Foster-Frau, J.p. Lawrence, Alexandro Luna, Chris Quinn, Fares Savawi, John Tedesco and Regina Zilbermints contributed to this report.