Crews on Monday began to tear down a Texas church where a gunman in 2017, using heavy machinery to raze the small building even after some families sought to preserve the scene of the deadliest church shooting in US history. A judge cleared the way last month for the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs to tear down the sanctuary where the attack took place, which until now had been kept as a memorial, the reports. That ruling came after some families in the community of less than 1,000 people filed a lawsuit hoping for a new vote on the building's fate.
Church members voted in 2021 to tear it down. Authorities put the number of dead in the Nov. 5, 2017, shooting at 26 people, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby.
After the shooting, the interior of the sanctuary was painted white and chairs with the names of those who were killed were placed there. A new church was completed for the congregation about a year and a half after the shooting..
