One Family Loses Eight Members in Texas Church Shooting

One Texas family lost eight of its members, four of whom were children and one a pregnant woman, in Sunday’s tragic church shooting rampage that claimed 26 lives.

Eight of the Holcombe family members were among those who attended and were shot dead during services at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs when a gunman, identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, stormed the church and killed 26, as Breitbart Texas reported. Kelley later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities believe his horrific actions were related to a domestic dispute.

A relative of the family told KSAT that John Holcombe was in the church Sunday morning with his four months-pregnant wife, Chrystal, and her four children, parents, plus brother and sister-in-law. Three of the children, 13-year-old Greg Hill, 11 year-old Emily Hill, and eight-year old Megan Hill, were slain inside the church with their mother. Medics rushed six-year-old Evelyn Hill to University Hospital where she remains in stable condition. John Holcombe was released from the hospital Sunday night after sustaining injuries from shrapnel. Holcombe’s parents, Bryan and Karla also died in the massacre as well as his brother, Marc, 36, and his one-year-old daughter Noah. The eldest of the Hill children, PJ, did not attend church with the family because he was home sick.

Family friend Christopher Foster created a GoFund Me account in honor of Holcombe’s sister Sarah Holcombe Slavin who is also alive.

It states:

We are putting this together in honor of Sarah Holcombe Slavin,  who has lost half of her family. Her father was the guest speaker at church that day; she was running late. She has lost her father, mother, sister-in-law (who was pregnant), five nieces and nephews, and her best friend since childhood, Tara. This means her brother John has lost his mom, dad, wife, and three kids (with two more injured) in one day. Another brother has lost two children as well. Keep them all in your prayers. If we could all gather up some financial support to send this family during this devastation, it would be a blessing. This is too much to bear on their own, let’s be the Church!

“It’s going to take a lot of funds to cover eight funerals, lost wages, perhaps child/adult counseling, and who knows what else,” said Foster on Facebook, according to the Austin American-Statesman. “No matter what number the Go Fund Me reaches, it will never be enough. But everything helps.”

So far, nearly 1,000 people have joined forces to raise almost $60,000 of the $100,000 goal.

Follow Merrill Hope, a member of the original Breitbart Texas team, on Twitter.