As a last-minute force was made to stop the destruction of a little Texas temple, where a shooter in 2017 killed more than 20 worshipers, drew crowds to the location.
In what is still the deadliest religion shooting in US history, First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs ‘ officials have not officially announced its plans to dismantle the sanctuary. Government have listed 26 people as dead from the filming as including a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
Inside the church Tuesday, patients ‘ family and community members who came to see the monument, perhaps for the last moment, sat on the floor in gloomy silence. Roses were placed in memory of the lost life.
Roxanna Avants, 71, said she came to Sutherland Springs to help those who lost loved ones in the firing after moving to the area. The church is still a house of God and a memorial for those who died in 2017, according to advocates, even if pedestrians do n’t want to walk past it as a reminder of a tragedy.
The Wilson County Sheriff’s Office advised reporters to leave the area after they heard that companions had requested the demand for personal property reasons. In the temple or park lot, media devices were not permitted.
A Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order requested by some people on Tuesday to postpone the destruction. The church is instructed not to start destruction and show up before the judge later this month by Judge Jennifer Dillingham’s accepted order.
However, Sam Fugate II, an attorney for the victims ‘ people who sought the restraining order, claimed the church had not received the order as of Tuesday afternoon and was concerned that demolition would still be possible.
Christine Earnhardt, the church’s minister, stated on Tuesday that she could not verify whether a demolition was scheduled and that the chapel had no plans to respond or release a speech.
Following the shooting, the temple was turned into a monument. According to the lawsuit, the room had light interior paint and chairs with titles of the dead were placed there.
The chapel voted in 2021 to raze the structure, which critics claimed was in opposition to the wishes of some surviving family members. About a month and a half after the shooting, the congregation received a new church.
” We’re not after money. We’re after what’s fair”, Fugate said. We want our customers to be at peace about whether to walk down and cast a new ballot.
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, a church member named as Amber Holder, argued that she wanted to ensure that the patients ‘ families and individuals of the firing had a voice. ” But many victims ‘ households were told: ‘ You’re never allowed to vote because you’re no longer a part these,'” Holder said.
Holder claimed she was n’t present at the service the day of the shooting but arrived shortly after. As a young she was taken in by the home of the priest at the time, whose 14- yr- older daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, was among those killed.
Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, said that as news of the upcoming demolition spread in the community of less than 1, 000 people, those she had spoken with were “devastated”. Smith claimed that Joann Ward, a woman who was similar to her as a daughter, and her two daughters, ages 7 and 5, were among those killed in the shooting.
Smith, who is not a member of the church, said she often visits the memorial sanctuary. ” It’s just a beautiful, beautiful memorial the way it is now”, she said.
” You feel the comfort of everybody that was lost there”, Smith said.
Communities in the US have been grappling with what should happen at the locations of mass shootings. Last month, demolition began on the three- story building where 17 people 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 torn down and replaced.
Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, and the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where racist mass shootings happened, both reopened. In Colorado, Columbine High School still stands- though its library, where most of the victims were killed, was replaced.
Following the 2022 shooting there, Texas officials planned to close Robb Elementary in Uvalde and demolish it.
