SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas — Plans to tear down a small Texas church where a gunman was shot in 2017… more than two dozen worshippers killed attracted many visitors on Tuesday when a last-minute attempt was made to stop the demolition.
Leaders of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs have not yet announced when they plan to demolish the sanctuary. Authorities say 26 people died in the shooting, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. the deadliest church shooting in US history.
Roxanna Avants, 71, who moved to Sutherland Springs after the shooting, said she was at the church Tuesday to support those who lost loved ones in the shooting. Avants said even if people don’t want to walk past a reminder of a tragedy, the church is still a house of God and a memorial to those who died in 2017.
On Tuesday, a Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order sought by some families to delay the demolition. The order, signed by Judge Jennifer Dillingham, instructs the church to not begin the demolition and to appear in court later this month.
But Sam Fugate II, an attorney for the families who filed the restraining order, said the church had still not received a restraining order as of Tuesday afternoon and was concerned that the demolition could proceed as planned.
Christine Earnhardt, the church’s secretary, said Tuesday she could not confirm whether a demolition was planned and that the church had no plans to comment or issue a statement.
After the shooting, the shrine was converted into a memorial, with the interior painted white and chairs set up with the victims’ names, the lawsuit said.
In 2021, the church voted to demolish the building, which opponents said went against the wishes of many relatives. A new church was completed for the community approximately one and a half years after the shooting.
“We’re not after money. We’re after what’s fair,” Fugate said. “We want our clients to express their peace about whether the church should run for office and have a new vote.”
Amber Holder, a church member who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said she wanted to ensure that survivors of the shooting and the families of the victims had a voice. “So many families of victims were told, ‘You can’t vote because you’re not members here anymore,'” Holder said.
Holder said she was not at the service the day of the shooting but arrived shortly afterward. As a teenager, she was being cared for by the family of the then-pastor whose 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, was among the dead.
Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, said that as news of the impending demolition spread through the community of fewer than 1,000 people, those she spoke to were “devastated.” Smith said that a woman who was like a daughter to her — Joann Ward — and her two daughters, ages 7 and 5were among those killed in the shooting.
Smith, who is not a member of the church, said she visits the memorial shrine often. “It’s just a beautiful, beautiful memorial the way it is now,” she said.
“You feel the comfort of everyone who was lost there,” Smith said.
Communities in the US have struggled with what should happen to the places where mass shootings took place. Demolition started last month on the three-storey building where 17 persons died 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 the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church In Charleston, South Carolina, where racist mass shootings took place, both have reopened. In Colorado, Columbine High School still exists, although the library, where most of the victims were killed, has been replaced.
In Texas, officials closed Robb Primary School in Uvalde after the 2022 shooting and plan to demolish it.
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Stengle contributed to this report from Dallas. Associated Press reporter Paul J. Weber contributed to this report from Austin.