Demolition began Monday at the Texas church that was the scene of a mass shooting that killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017, even after some families tried to keep the site of the deadliest church shooting in US history. USA.
Last month, state District Court Judge Russell Wilson allowed the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs to demolish the sanctuary 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 sued 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 caused the demolition.
“It’s God’s house, not his home,” Riley said.
For many community members, 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 witnessed the destruction of the memorial shrine on Monday.
“I’m sad, angry, hurt,” she said.
In early July, a Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order sought by some families. But some others later denied a request to extend that order, prompting the demolition. In court papers, the church’s lawyers called the design “a constant and very painful reminder. “
Lawyers for the church argued that it had the right to tear down the monument, while the lawyer for the families who filed the lawsuit said they were only hoping to get a new vote.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that some church members were unfairly removed from the church’s roster before the vote. In a court filing, the Church denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
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 by bystanders and crashing his car. Investigators said the shooting appeared to have arisen from a domestic dispute involving Kelley and his mother. -politicians, who attended the church facilities but were not available on the day of the shooting.
Communities across the United States are wondering what is happening at the sites of mass shootings. Last month, demolition began on the three-story building where 17 other 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.