SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas — Monday marked a somber day in Sutherland Springs.
After a judge last month cleared the way for First Baptist Church to tear down the sanctuary where 26 people were gunned down on Nov. 5, 2017, marking the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history, heavy machinery appeared on site.
John Riley has lived in Sutherland Springs his whole life. He said he was heartbroken over the decision to tear down the sanctuary, which had been kept as a memorial since then.
“I don’t know about everybody else,” Riley said. “I’m not gonna speak for no one. To me, the devil has done won."
Riley, 86, has been a member of First Baptist Church his entire life.
“They have torn my worship place down,” he said. “That’s the house of God. And if a preacher can show me in the Bible where they got the right to tear your house down, I wanna see it.”
In addition to the 26 killed, more than 20 were wounded in the 2017 attack. Riley said the survivors and those who perished are close to his heart.
“I knew a few of them,” Riley said. “And thank God a few of them pulled through it.”
What was once known as a pillar in the community no longer stands after heavy machinery razed the building even after some families sought to preserve it. Church members voted in 2021 to tear it down, but some families in the community of less than 1,000 people filed a lawsuit hoping for a new vote on the building’s fate.
What’s left of First Baptist Church is rubble where the community once gathered with peace of mind.
“They tore my belief down," Riley added.
For many in the community, the sanctuary was a place of solace.
Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, visited often over the years, calling it a place where “you feel the comfort of everybody that was lost there.” Among those killed in the shooting were a woman who was like a daughter to Smith — Joann Ward — and Ward’s two daughters, ages 7 and 5.
Smith watched Monday as the memorial sanctuary was torn down.
“I am sad, angry, hurt,” she said.
In early July, a Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order sought by some families. But another judge later denied a request to extend that order, setting in motion the demolition. In court filings, attorneys for the church called the structure a “constant and very painful reminder."
Attorneys for the church argued that it was within its rights to demolish the memorial while the attorney for the families who filed the lawsuit said they were just hoping to get a new vote.
“It’s a very somber day for us,” said Amber Holder, a church member who was a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
She said she wasn’t at the service on the day of the shooting but arrived soon after. As a teen, she was taken in by the family of the pastor, whose 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, was among those killed.
Holder said the church had become a piece of history and that the scars on the building from that day, including bullet holes, were a powerful reminder of what happened.
“Tearing it down, no good comes from that,” Holder said.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that some church members were wrongfully removed from the church roster before the vote was taken. In a court filing, the church denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
A former church member spoke with a crane operator who said demolition will continue throughout the week.