After he raced to sanctuary, hell hit home

THE FRIGHTENED made him angrier.

Gunman Devin Kelley yelled, “Everybody is going to die, motherf---ers,” before he unleashed mayhem inside the Texas church where he killed 26 people, including more than a dozen children, according to a couple who survived the attack.

“When the children cried next to their mothers, he would return to shoot them more,” Joaquin Ramirez, 50, told the Daily News. “He had more hatred toward the children because they cried.”

Ramirez and his live-in girlfriend, Rosanne Solis, 52, were sitting in the third row of the front left side of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs when Kelley, 26, entered shortly after 11 a.m. on Sunday. They hid under the church benches as the gunman emptied clip after clip of his assault rifle.

He wrought havoc on the church for 16 minutes, Ramirez said, filling the tiny house of worship with blood and gun smoke.

Kelley — wearing tactical gear and a black face mask with a white skull — walked up and down the aisle, shooting frightened parishioners who tried to seek refuge in the pews. children

His youngest victim was 1-year-old Noah Holcombe, whose father, grandparents and several young cousins were killed in the attack. An additional 20 people were wounded.

Kelley’s first target was the video crew stationed in the church’s rear, who regularly recorded the congregation’s sermons to post online. “He came in very angry,” said Ramirez. “Someone said, we are being attacked.”

The next target was Annabelle Pomeroy, daughter of the church’s pastor, who was traveling in Oklahoma at the time.

Kelley shot 14-year-old Annabelle, who was sitting in the front row, wounding her in the upper body, a still rattled Ramirez said.

“She looked in me in the eyes and said, ‘Please help me,’ ” he said.

All Ramirez could do, however, was tell her to hide under a bench to elude Kelley.

Kelley started to make his way out of the church — thinking everyone was dead — when he heard Annabelle screaming in pain again.

“The pastor’s daughter cried again and he walked back to the front to shoot her,” Ramirez said.

Fragments from the last shot at Annabelle hit Solis in the shoulder. She told Ramirez to leave her there so at least one of them could survive.

The couple’s inability to help the frightened children has left both of them still shaken.

“It was horrible to see him shoot children and not being able to help them,” Solis told The News. “I don’t know how we survived.” GARY RAMSEY was at the market, getting ready for deer season when he saw emergency vehicles gunning it toward the “little white church” in Sutherland Springs.

It didn’t take long for him to realize something terrible had happened, but he couldn’t predict what he’d see when he headed there himself — or that the horror would hit close to home.

Ramsey’s mother, Theresa Rodriguez, 66, and her husband, Richard, 64, were among the 26 people cut down during Devin Kelley’s 450-bullet rampage at the First Baptist Church Sunday afternoon.

The couple attended services regularly, so Ramsey jumped into his truck to find out what had happened. Right away, he saw the carnage. “Bullet holes along the side of the church, magazine clips laying all about the front door. People laying down in the yard. I don’t know if they were dead, injured or what. . . . A girl walked outside with bullet holes in her legs.”

He made his way into the church, but didn’t get more than two pews in before turning back. Twelve hours later, he learned his mother and stepdad had been killed.

The couple met at the railroad construction company where they both worked, and were married 11 years. Richard doted on Theresa, taking care of her as she survived two brushes with breast cancer, Ramsey’s wife, Cheryl, said.

Ramsey choked back tears, recounting how he and Cheryl (photo, together) could always count on the couple to take care of their 2-year-old son, Brynson, whenever they needed a break from parenting.

“That was Brynson’s favorite thing, to visit grandma,” Cheryl said.

Brynson’s 10-year-old brother, Briten, knows what happened, but the toddler still doesn’t know his grandmother is gone.

“He has just heard little bits of pieces. He is asking where’s grandma and who got shot. We haven’t even had the TV on. We don’t talk about it,” Cheryl Ramsey said. “We went to their house yesterday, and it was the hardest thing. They weren’t sitting there on the couch. She’s not there anymore in their house.”