SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas — Crews started Monday to tear down First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshippers in 2017.
The crews were using heavy machinery to raze the small building after some families had sought to preserve the scene of the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history.
A judge cleared the way last month for the church to tear down the sanctuary where the attack took place.
The church until now had kept the sanctuary as a memorial. Members of First Baptist voted in 2021 to tear down the building over the protests of some in the small community.
Authorities put the number of dead in the Nov. 5, 2017, shooting at 26 people, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby.
A new church was completed for the congregation about a year and a half after the tragic shooting.
Earlier this summer, 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."
Communities across the U.S. have grappled with what should happen to the sites of mass shootings. Last month, demolition began on the three-story building where 17 people died 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, it was torn down and replaced.
