Longtime congregants at the small-town Texas church where a gunman’s rampage left more than two dozen dead say they were afraid of the attacker.
Husband and wife Rod and Judy Green said Friday that they were good friends with Devin Kelley’s in-laws, and that Kelley had often exhibited troubling behavior.
Authorities have said Kelley’s mother-in-law attended First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs and she’d gotten threatening texts from him.
Rod Green, the grounds steward at the church, said that at a Christmas dinner one year, Kelley had “bragged about being armed.” The Greens also said they watched Kelley closely when he showed up wearing all black last month at a festival at the church.
Judy Green said Kelley was “completely distant and way out in thought.”
Green said she had slept little since Sunday, waking up screaming from nightmares. She and her husband, who were married at the church, were not at the service Sunday but later watched as worshippers were carried out in body bags.
“It is fresh in my mind. I see it all — just over and over and over,” Judy Green said.
Temporary memorial
Law enforcement officials have reopened the intersection where the First Baptist Church stands, but black mesh material was tied to the chain-link fence surrounding it. With the bullet-ridden church door open, a tall wooden cross could be seen at the altar.
At annual Veterans Day observances Saturday, the church victims with military backgrounds will receive a full military salute on the grounds of the community hall, said Alice Garcia, president of the unincorporated town’s community association.
“Everyone in the community is doing what they can, but honestly, everyone feels so helpless,” Karyssa Calbert, 20, of neighboring Floresville, Texas, said.
Church services will never take place in the building again, according to Rod Green, who said the sanctuary would be turned into a temporary memorial for the victims before the building is eventually demolished.
The building will be scrubbed down and whitewashed, and chairs will be placed inside — one to commemorate each of the dead.
Green said the church plans to build a new structure on property it owns elsewhere. Services will be held Sunday at the community hall.
Pastor Frank Pomeroy, whose daughter was killed in the massacre, told leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention earlier this week that it would be too painful to continue using First Baptist Church as a place of worship.
Other sites of mass shootings have been torn down, including Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults in December 2012. A new school was built elsewhere.
A one-room Amish schoolhouse near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was torn down in 2006, 10 days after an assailant took children hostage and shot and killed five girls ages 6 to 13. The previous site of the school is now a pasture. A nearly identical schoolhouse with a security fence was erected nearby and named New Hope School.
Kelley shot and killed 25 people at the Sutherland Springs church. Authorities have put the official toll at 26, because one of the victims was pregnant.
Kelley died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being shot and chased by two residents after he left the church, authorities said.
Funerals
Meanwhile, more than 500 people attended a private funeral on a San Antonio-area Air Force base for a husband and wife who were among the victims.
The San Antonio Express-News reported that the service for Scott and Karen Marshall was held Thursday afternoon at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.
Randy Martin, spokesman for the 12th Flying Training Wing, said a traditional military funeral was held for the couple. The service was closed to media and the public at their family’s request.
Martin told the newspaper that Karen Marshall was promoted posthumously to senior master sergeant. She had been planning to retire from the military soon. Martin said Scott Marshall, already a military retiree, was a civilian employee at the base.
Wounded
Medical officials said 11 people wounded in Sutherland Springs remained hospitalized. The conditions of the patients, being treated at two San Antonio hospitals, ranged from good to critical.
Brooke Army Medical Center on Friday reported having seven patients from the church. The hospital said the patients included five adults and two children.
University Health System had four patients, two of whom were children.
Officials at both hospitals declined to release more specific information on the wounded patients.
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