SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas — On Nov. 5, 2017, a gunman entered the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs and killed 26 people, including an unborn child. Twenty-two more people were injured.
The shooter later died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history and the fifth-deadliest in U.S. history.
Much has changed in the past four years.
In October of this year, a trial designed to assess damages owed to the families of the victims got underway.
U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez ordered the trial to determine how much the U.S. Air Force should pay to compensate survivors and the families of those killed. He ruled in July that the Air Force was “60% liable” for the attack because it failed to submit the shooter’s assault conviction during his time in the Air Force to a national database, which might have prevented him from buying the guns he used in the mass shooting.
The shooter, who was discharged from the Air Force in 2014 for bad conduct, exchanged fire with an armed resident while leaving the church. The armed resident then got in the truck of another man and they followed the shooter as he drove away. The shooter lost control of the vehicle and crashed before taking his life.
In August, member of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs voted 69-35 to tear the building down.
“This decision was loaded down with so much emotion on both sides that we agreed that no more conversation would be had until we voted to see what the future held for the memorial corner, so as not to ruffle anything that would not have had future bearing anyway,” Pastor Frank Pomeroy told the Baptist Press. “So, the next conversation will be about when and how to remove the facility.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.