27 SHOT DEAD IN TEXAS CHURCH MASSACRE
UP to 27 worshippers – including a child aged two – were feared dead last night after a gunman opened fire on a church congregation in Texas.
Police said the killer walked into the tiny First Baptist Church and started shooting half way through yesterday’s service.
Around 25 people were reportedly injured after the attack on the largely white congregation. Police said the gunman, who was wearing ‘full gear’, fled the church in Sutherland Springs – which has only 50 regular worshippers – in a car. He was pursued 16km into a neighbouring county where he died. It was initially unclear whether he was shot by police officers or killed himself.
A witness near the church said that at about 11.30am she heard around 20 shots from what sounded like a semi-automatic inside the building. Others said it sounded as if the gunman reloaded at least once.
Four helicopters ferried the injured to hospital in the nearest city of San Antonio, 50km away, as FBI agents arrived to help with the investigation. The total death toll was not confirmed but officials said it was ‘more than 20’ and that ‘there were kids involved’.
There were claims that ‘half the congregation’ had been killed. Policeman Albert Gamez Jr told CBS News: ‘The details are kind of sketchy but what I know right now, what they’re telling me, like 27 deceased and over 20, 25 injured.’
The tight-knit rural community has just one church, two petrol stations, a general store, a tyre shop and a community centre. Its population in 2000 was just 362.
The church usually posts its Sunday services on YouTube and the congregation is a mix of retired people and young families. Services have a strong evangelical flavour, with last Sunday’s featuring electric guitars and a motorbike parked near the altar.
Investigators believe yesterday’s service may have been filmed. First Baptist Church Pastor Frank Pomeroy told ABC that his 14-year-old daughter was among the dead.
He added that she was ‘one very beautiful, special child.’ Albert Gamez, a local official, said: ‘It’s a tragic day. My heart is broken. You never think it would happen and then it does. It doesn’t matter where you’re at.’
Texas governor Greg Abbott said: ‘Our prayers are with all who were harmed by this evil act. Our thanks to law enforcement for their response.’
US president Donald Trump, who is touring Asia, wrote on Twitter: ‘May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI and law enforcement are on the scene. I am monitoring the situation from Japan.’
The shooting comes little more than a month after Stephen Paddock shot 58 people dead in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
In 2015, nine people were killed by Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist, during a prayer service in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
In September, African-American Emanuel Samson allegedly sprayed a church in Nashville, Tennessee, with bullets – killing a woman and wounding six.
A note which police say he left in his car suggested he was doing it in revenge for the Charleston outrage.
‘My heart is broken’