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U.S. NEWS Friday 10 November 2017

Pastor: Texas church that was attacked will be demolished

By PAUL J. WEBER made without consulting
EMILY SCHMALL congregants, but Pome-
Associated Press roy discussed turning the
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex- site into a memorial for the
as (AP) — The Texas church dead and putting up a new
where more than two doz- building on property the
en people were killed by church owns, Oldham said.
a gunman during Sunday Charlene Uhl, mother of
services will be demolished, 16-year-old Haley Krueger,
the pastor said. who died in the attack,
Pastor Frank Pomeroy told agreed that the church
leaders of the Southern should come down.
Baptist Convention earlier There should still be a
this week that it would be church “but not here,” she
too painful to continue us- said Thursday as she vis-
ing First Baptist Church as a ited a row of white crosses
place of worship. commemorating the vic-
Pomeroy discussed the tims in front of the build-
state of the building with ing. She said her daughter Flags mark evidence on the lawn of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday,
the denomination’s top attended worship services Nov. 6, 2017, a day after over 20 people died in a mass shooting Sunday.
executives, who traveled and a weekly Thursday (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
to the rural community in a night youth group meet- be destroyed, Brown said: a gunman killed 20 children ages 6 to 13. The previous
show of support, a national ing held by another victim, “Yes. Who would want to and six adults in December site of the school is now a
Southern Baptist spokes- Karla Holcombe. Jeannie go back in there? But then 2012. A new school was pasture. A nearly identical
man said. Brown, visiting from Indi- if it is destroyed, does that built elsewhere. A one- schoolhouse with a security
The pastor described the ana, stopped at the site mean he (the gunman) room Amish schoolhouse fence was erected nearby
church as “too stark of a with her daughter, who won?” Other sites of mass near Lancaster, Pennsylva- and named New Hope
reminder” of the massacre, used to live in Sutherland shootings have been torn nia, was torn down in 2006, School. The father of the
spokesman Sing Oldham Springs but left decades down, including Sandy 10 days after an assailant gunman broke the family’s
said. ago for San Antonio. Asked Hook Elementary in New- took children hostage and silence and said his rela-
No inal decisions can be whether the church should town, Connecticut, where shot and killed ive girls tives are grieving.q
Congress honors oficers who responded to attack

By KEVIN FREKING of Honor, the agency’s we’re honoring today ran Texas. ball ield that day.”
Associated Press highest honor. The medal toward the threat and “That day on June 14th Scalise and four other peo-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Con- is awarded to those who stopped it, and we can’t could have turned out the ple were injured June 14
gress on Thursday hon- exhibit great courage and ever thank you enough,” exact same way. when a gunman opened
ored ive oficers who “ran voluntary risk their life to said Senate Majority Lead- We all know what the out- ire on a Republican base-
toward the threat and help others. er Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. come would have been if ball practice in nearby
stopped it” when a gun- The oficers honored were Scalise, 51, was seriously not for the heroism and the Alexandria, Virginia. U.S.
man opened ire on a con- Special Agents David Bai- wounded when he was bravery of the men and Capitol Police and other
gressional baseball prac- ley and Crystal Griner of struck in the hip, and the women on this stage,” said oficers returned ire and
tice in June, gravely injuring the U.S. Capitol Police and bullet tore into blood ves- Scalise. killed the gunman. The ri-
House Majority Whip Steve oficers Nicole Battaglia, Al- sels, bones and internal or- Oficer Bailey’s mother le-wielding attacker had
Scalise. exander Jensen and Kevin gans. traveled from Brazil to at- nursed grievances against
Gathering in the U.S. Capi- Jobe of the Alexandria Po- Relying on two walking tend the ceremony at the President Donald Trump
tol, leaders of the House lice Department. sticks to help him move, Capitol. and the GOP.
and Senate paid tribute to The latter were the irst of- Scalise told the oficers that Scalise had a message for “To see these oficers get
the ive oficers who initially icers from an outside law their actions prevented a her. “Your son saved the their due, this really is an-
responded to the attack, enforcement agency to re- deadly attack similar to the lives of over a dozen mem- other milestone in all of our
presenting them with the ceive the honor. recent massacres in Las Ve- bers of Congress and the collective recovery,” House
U.S. Capitol Police Medal “These men and women gas and Sutherland Springs, staff that were out on that Speaker Paul Ryan said.q