By Corey Blackman
WASHINGTON
As many as half of the victims who perished in a church massacre in the state of Texas were children, authorities said Monday.
Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt said 12 - 14 of the 26 victims were minors, including Annabelle Pomeroy, 14, the daughter of the pastor at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.
Sherri Pomeroy, the pastor’s wife, read a statement to the media that said her daughter would not have been able to bear the pain of what happened.
“We lost more than Belle yesterday … One thing that gives me a sliver of encouragement is the fact that Belle was surrounded yesterday by her church family that she loved fiercely, and vice-versa,” she said through tears.
“Our church was not comprised of members or parishioners. We were a very close family. We ate together, we laughed together, we cried together, and we worshiped together," she said.
“Now most of our church family is gone, our building probably beyond repair and the few of us that are left behind lost tragically yesterday.
As senseless as this tragedy was, our sweet Belle would not have been able to deal with losing so much family yesterday.”
President Donald Trump said the shooting is a “mental health problem at the highest level,” in an attempt to delay discussion about gun control as demands grow for lawmakers to tighten laws less than 24 hours after the latest mass shooting in the U.S.
“This was a very, based on preliminary reports, a very deranged individual. A lot of problems over a long period of time,” Trump said at a joint news conference in Japan.
“We have a lot of mental health problems in our country, as do other countries. But this isn't a guns situation.”
Suspected gunman Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, walked into the church and opened fire during Sunday service.
The Pentagon confirmed Kelley was a member of the U.S. military and served at an Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until 2014 when he received a bad conduct discharged for assaulting his wife and child, according to reports.
A local resident who lived across the street from the church shot Kelley with a rifle as he tried to leave.
During a brief chase in which he was pursued by the resident and another, authorities said Kelley telephoned his father to say he did not believe he was going to live.
Kelley was found dead shortly after, from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Two handguns were recovered from the vehicle and a rifle was found inside the church where a video recording of the shooting was secured by authorities.
Police have not officially fingered a motive but Tackitt told NBC News that Kelley’s former in-laws worshipped at the church.
“They were not here yesterday to attend church but they did come yesterday afternoon and speak to investigators,” he said.
Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Freeman Martin later said there was a “domestic situation” in the family and Kelley sent threatening text messages to his mother-in-law.
Kelley’s wife’s grandmother was reportedly among the deceased.
Officials said 23 victims were found dead inside the church, two were found outside and one died at a hospital. Twenty victims are being treated at local hospitals with 10 in critical condition.
The victims at hospitals range from 5 - 72 years old. The youngest killed at the church was just 18 months and the eldest was 77.
“We are dealing with the largest mass shooting in our state’s history.” Abbott said.
The names of the victims will be released pending notifications of all of the next of kins, Freeman said.
Among the dead were eight victims from one family, a grieving relative told the Washington Post. That relative said the victims included an infant.
Kathleen Curnow witnessed the massacre with her husband.
Initially, she believed she heard children playing with firecrackers before her husband looked out of their bedroom window and saw the gunman shooting from outside the church.
“I was raised among guns all my life and I was not ever prepared to just hear that,” she said
When the shooting stopped, Curnow’s husband went to the church but was shaken by the scene inside.
“My husband actually went to the church to render aid and he’s a strong man but he turned around and came back. He just couldn’t. He said, ‘I can’t do it,’” she told NBC.
Authorities are at multiple crime scenes, including the church and the suspect’s home, about 35 miles north of Sutherland Springs.
The FBI said the shooting is not being investigated as domestic terrorism.
Turkey was among the first countries to condemn the attack and offer condolences.
“We strongly condemn this attack and wish Allah’s mercy on those who lost their lives and convey our condolences to the people of the U.S.," said a statement from its foreign ministry.
And former President Barack Obama, who was unsuccessful in trying to pass “sensible gun control” legislation after a number of mass shootings during his two terms in office, also offered his condolences and prayed for practical changes.
“May God also grant all of us the wisdom to ask what concrete steps we can take to reduce the violence and weaponry in our midst,” he wrote on Twitter.
A prayer vigil with more than 100 attendees, including Abbott, was held Sunday within sight of the church.
The shooting occurred about a month after a gunman killed 58 victims at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, and on the eight anniversary of a deadly shooting in 2009 that killed 13 victims in Ft. Hood, Texas, about 150 miles north of Sutherland Springs.
This latest shooting now holds the distinction as the deadliest at a house of worship in the U.S.
