Pastor hopes to demolish Texas church to build memorial garden for shooting victims

Pastor Frank Pomeroy's daughter Annabelle was killed in the shooting.

ByABC News
November 9, 2017, 1:45 PM

— -- The pastor at a Texas church where more than 20 people were killed on Sunday hopes to demolish the house of worship and erect a memorial garden in its place.

Pastor Frank Pomeroy, whose 14-year-old daughter Annabelle died in the shooting at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, discussed the building's future on Tuesday with Frank Page, the president and CEO of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Steve Gaines, the SBC’s president.

Pomeroy said the church "was a very painful setting" and proposed tearing it down, according to Roger Oldom, spokesman for the SBC.

PHOTO: Flags mark evidence on the lawn of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Nov. 6, 2017, a day after the mass shooting.
Flags mark evidence on the lawn of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Nov. 6, 2017, a day after the mass shooting.

"He would then reconstruct a new worship center on the property -- but not where the church stood," Oldom said.

The decision to demolish the building is not up to Pomeroy, but Oldom noted that the pastor's wishes will likely be respected.

Sunday's shooting left 26 dead, according to police, who have included an unborn child in the death count.

Video from the church shows suspect Devin Kelley methodically walking into the pews and executing his victims, a law enforcement official told ABC News Wednesday. He went into every pew to unload rounds on the worshipers who were cowering on the ground, the official said.

Kelley took his own life after the attack, which is the worst mass shooting in Texas history.

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