Demolition began Monday at the Texas church that was the scene of a mass shooting that killed more than two dozen worshippers in 2017, even after some families tried to keep the site of the shooting at the deadliest church in United States history.
Last month, state District Court Judge Russell Wilson allowed First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs to demolish the shrine where the attack took place. Until now it remained as a monument on which the names of those murdered were inscribed. Wilson’s resolution came after some families in the network of fewer than 1,000 citizens filed a lawsuit in hopes of a new vote on the building’s fate. Church members voted in 2021 to demolish it.
About a year and a half after the shooting, a new church was completed for the congregation.
John Riley, an 86-year-old church member, watched sadly as the long arm of a yellow bulldozer plunged a heavy claw into the construction several times Monday.
“Satan has succeeded,” Riley said, “I’m the man I am without this church. “
He said he would pray that God would “punish those” who carry out the demolition.
“It’s God’s house, not theirs,” Riley said.
For many members of the community, sanctuary is a comforting position.
Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, has visited that location over the years and called it a place where “you feel the comfort of all those who have been lost there. ” Among those killed in the shooting were a woman who looked like Smith’s daughter, Joann Ward, and Ward’s two daughters, ages 7 and 5.
Smith the destruction of the memorial shrine on Monday.
“I’m sad, angry, hurt,” she said.
In early July, a court in Texas granted a temporary restraining order sought by some families. But others later rejected a request to extend that order, prompting the demolition. In court papers, the church’s lawyers called the plan a “constant and very painful reminder. “
Lawyers for the church argued they had the right to tear down the monument, while lawyers for the families who sued said they were just hoping to get a new vote.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that some church members were unfairly removed from the church roll before the vote. In a court filing, the church denied the lawsuit’s allegations.
A person who answered the phone at the church said Monday he had no comment and then hung up.
The man who opened fire at the church, Devin Patrick Kelley, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being chased through bystanders and crashing his car. Investigators said the shooting appeared to have stemmed from a domestic dispute involving Kelley and his mother. -politicians, who attended church facilities but were not available on the day of the shooting.
Across the United States, communities are wondering what happens to the sites of mass shootings. Last month, demolition began on the three-story building where another 17 people were killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, it was demolished and replaced. .
Top Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, and Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where mass racist shootings have reopened. In Colorado, Columbine High School still exists, though its library, where most of the victims died, has been replaced.
In Texas, the government closed Robb Elementary School in Uvalde after the 2022 shooting and plans to demolish the school.