Last-Minute Efforts Fail to Stop Sutherland Springs Church From Being Demolished

The planned demolition of a small Texas church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017 drew visitors Tuesday as a last-minute effort was made to stop the demolition.

Leaders of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs have not publicly announced when they plan to demolish the sanctuary, where authorities have put the death toll at 26 people, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby, in what remains the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history.

Inside the church on Tuesday, relatives of the victims and members of the community who came to view the memorial, perhaps for the last time, sat on the floor in somber silence. Roses were laid in memory of the lives lost.

Roxanna Avants, 71, moved to Sutherland Springs after the shooting and said she came to support those who lost loved ones in the shooting. Avants said while people may not want to walk past a reminder of a tragedy, the church remains a house of God and a memorial to those who died in 2017.

Outside the church, the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office asked reporters to leave, saying neighbors had requested the move because of privacy concerns. Television cameras were not allowed inside the church or the parking lot.

On Tuesday, a Texas judge approved a temporary restraining order requested by some families to delay the demolition. The order, signed by Judge Jennifer Dillingham, orders the church not to begin demolition and to appear in court later this month.

But Sam Fugate II, an attorney for the families who requested the restraining order, said the church had still not received the order as of Tuesday afternoon and expressed concern that the demolition could still go ahead.

Christine Earnhardt, the church’s secretary, said Tuesday she could not confirm whether demolition was planned and that the church had no plans to comment or make a statement.

After the shooting, the shrine was transformed into a memorial. The interior was painted white and chairs bearing the names of those killed were placed inside, according to the complaint.

The church then voted in 2021 to demolish the building, which opponents said went against the wishes of many surviving family members. A new church was completed for the congregation about a year and a half after the shooting.

“We’re not looking for money. We’re looking for what’s right,” Fugate said. “We want our clients to say what they think about the need for the church to come forward and have a new vote.”

Amber Holder, a church member who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said she wants to make sure shooting survivors and victims’ families have the right to vote. “A lot of victims’ families have been told, ‘You don’t have the right to vote because you’re not a member of the church anymore,’” Holder said.

Holder said she was not at the service on the day of the shooting but arrived shortly afterward. As a teenager, she was taken in by the family of the then-pastor, whose 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, was among the victims.

Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, said when news of the impending demolition spread through the community of fewer than 1,000 people, people she spoke with 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 often visits the memorial shrine. “It’s a beautiful memorial as it is today,” she said.

“You feel the comfort of all those who were lost there,” Smith said.

Communities across the United States are grappling with what to do with the sites 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 occurred, have both reopened. In Colorado, Columbine High School still stands, although its library, where most of the victims were killed, has been replaced.

In Texas, officials closed Robb Elementary 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 writer Paul J. Weber contributed to this report from Austin.