Texas Church Shooter Killed 8 Members Of One Family, Including Toddler And Her Pregnant Mom


Eight members of the same family lost their lives in the Texas church shooting on Sunday morning, with the youngest member just a toddler who was only 18-months-old. The pain and suffering in the aftermath of the Texas church shooting can be seen on the faces of the people of Sunderland Springs as they talk with the numerous reporters on the scene today.

There are so many tragic stories coming out of the carnage of this shooting that indicate the overwhelming sadness this event has brought to this small town of 400 after Devin Kelley, 26, walked down the center aisle of that church. While each story is as heartwrenching as the next, a family that lost eight of its members across three generations is one of those stories that’s hard to fathom for many of the folks across social media today.

The 40-year marriage of Bryan and Karla Holcombe was blessed with children and grandchildren, some of whom were with them in church on Sunday, sitting side by side in the same pew when the shooting erupted. Bryan and Karla are gone, and their daughter-in-law who was eight months pregnant, Crystal Holcombe, died in this shooting, reports Fox News.

Crystal, whose world centered on her children, had a Facebook page that indicated she was a proud mother. Three of Crystal’s children, Emily, Greg, and Megan, died alongside their mother and their grandparents, Bryan and Kara Halcombe, in that church pew. Two of Crystal’s children, along with her husband, survived the massacre.

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Bryan and Karla’s son, Marc Daniel Holcombe, 36, also died alongside his parents, as did his daughter Noah, who was only 18-months-old.

According to law enforcement today, half of the people who died in this shooting were children. There were 60 people in the church, and almost all of them were either killed or wounded, reports Shepard Smith of Fox News Monday afternoon.

According to the New York Post, Sheriff Joe Tackitt described how the shooter operated while inside the church.

“He just walked down the center aisle, turned around and my understanding was shooting on his way back out.”

Tackitt also explained how the parishioners had “no way” to escape once Kelley started to shoot. The people in that church couldn’t get up and run; they would be right in front of him if they did. There was nowhere to hide, and he was walking down the center aisle of the church shooting to the right and left of him.

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Devin Patrick Kelley entered the small Baptist church in Sunderland Springs, Texas and began shooting all around the church, reports Business Insider. It didn’t appear as if he had any target in mind, other than causing mass carnage. On his way out of the church, a neighbor, identified as Stephen Willeford, who heard the shooting, had run out of his home barefoot with his rifle to help. This is when he came across Kelley. He managed to shoot Kelley, who dropped his rifle and took off in his vehicle.

At that exact time, another Texas man, Johnnie Langendorff, was driving by in his vehicle, and Willeford stopped him and asked that he follow the shooter as he hopped into the vehicle. Langendorff and Willeford were strangers, but Langendorff said that this was the kind of situation that you just act upon and ask question later. The two men, who are hailed as citizen heroes today, chased Kelley for about five miles, sometimes reaching speeds of almost 100 mph.

Kelley went off the road, and Willeford got out and took cover behind Langendorff’s vehicle. He rested his rifle on the hood of Langendorff’s truck, pointing it at the vehicle the suspect was in while demanding that the lone occupant, which was Kelley, get out of the car. He didn’t, and Kelly took his own life.

The motive is believed to be domestic, as Kelley had recently sent threatening text messages to his former mother-in-law, who attends services at that church. She wasn’t in attendance on Sunday. This investigation is in its preliminary stages, and investigators hope to find an official motive as they learn more about Devin Kelley.

[Featured Image by slonme/Shutterstock]

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