SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas — Plans to demolish a small Texas church where a gunman killed more than two dozen congregants in 2017 drew crowds Tuesday as a last-minute effort was made to prevent the demolition.
Leaders of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs have not yet announced when they plan to demolish the sanctuary. Authorities say the shooting left 26 people dead, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. It remains the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history.
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.
The church then voted in 2021 to demolish the building, which opponents said went against the wishes of many survivors. About a year and a half after the shooting, a new church was completed for the community.
“We’re not after money. We’re after what’s fair,” Fugate said. “We want our clients to be able 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 a member 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 a woman who was like a daughter to her — Joann Ward — 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 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 across the U.S. are grappling with what to do with the sites of mass shootings. Last month, demolition began on the three-story building where 17 people were killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. It was torn down and replaced after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, and the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, sites of racist mass shootings, have both reopened. In Colorado, Columbine High School still stands — though the library, where most of the victims died, has been replaced.
In Texas, authorities have closed Robb Elementary School in Uvalde after the 2022 shooting and plan to demolish the school.
