Families of survivors seek to delay demolition of church where 2017 mass shooting took place

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS — 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.

Roxanna Avants, 71, moved to Sutherland Springs after the shooting and said she was at the church Tuesday 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.

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 want what’s right,” Fugate said. “We want our customers to have a say in whether the church should come forward and hold 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 about the sites of mass shootings.

Authorities closed Robb Elementary School in Uvalde after the 2022 mass shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead. The plan is to demolish it.

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. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the school 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, though its library, where most of the victims were killed in a 1999 mass shooting that left 13 dead, has been replaced.