At least eight members of the same family were among the 26 people killed Sunday when an armed man fired on churchgoers in a Texas sanctuary.
During the shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, about 20 others were injured.
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No visitor of the church escaped unscathed, Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackett told CNN. He said the event killed about 4 percent of the rural town’s population.
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Among those killed were eight relatives, a community leader and relative said. The victims in the family span three generations, including a woman who was about five months pregnant and three of her young children.
CBS reports that the pregnant woman’s brother-in-law and his child were also among those killed in the attack.
During what is now the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history, 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley allegedly began firing at the church at around 11:20 a.m. He was dressed in black and used a “Ruger AR assault-type rifle” to shoot at visitors of Sunday service.
A neighbor of the church heard gunshots and used his own rifle to exchange fire with Kelley. The gunman eventually dropped his weapon and fled in a Ford Explorer.
New resident Johnnie Langendorff was driving by the church when he saw the shooter and unidentified neighbor firing at each other.
“The neighbor with the rifle came to my truck and he opened my door and said, ‘He just shot up the church,’ and got in,” Langendorff said Monday on Good Morning America. “He said, ‘Chase him’ so that’s what I did. I just chased him.”
Langendorff and the neighbor chased Kelley and called police to inform them of the shooter’s movements. They said Kelley was driving recklessly, veering all over the road and hitting a road sign and guard rail about 10 miles from the church.
Police found Kelley dead of a gunshot wound inside his vehicle. It is unclear whether the shot was self-inflicted or was the result of a citizen’s shot.
A vigil was held on Sunday night so community members could honor those lives lost. Of those 26, the Wilson County Sheriff says that 12-14 were children. Those killed range in age from 5 years old to 72 and include the church’s pastor’s 14-year-old daughter.
