Plans to demolish Texas church where gunman opened fire in 2017 draw visitors back to sanctuary

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Plans to tear down a small Texas church where a gunman in 2017 killed more than two dozen worshippers drew visitors Tuesday as a last-minute push was made to stop the demolition.

Leaders of First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs have not publicly announced when it plans to demolish the sanctuary, where authorities put the number of dead from the shooting at 26 people, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby, in what remains the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history.

Inside the church Tuesday, victims’ relatives and community members who came to see the memorial, possibly for the last time, sat on the floor in somber silence. Roses were placed in remembrance of the lives lost.

Roxanna Avants, 71, moved to Sutherland Springs after the shooting and said she came to support those who lost loved ones in the shooting. Avants said even if people don’t want to walk past a reminder of a tragedy, the church is still a house of God and a memorial for those who died in 2017.

Outside the church, the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office told journalists to leave the area, saying neighbors had made the request for reasons related to private property. News cameras were not allowed in the church or parking lot.

On Tuesday, a Texas judge approved a temporary restraining order sought by some families to delay the demolition. The order signed by Judge Jennifer Dillingham instructs the church to not to begin demolition and to appear before the court later this month.

But Sam Fugate II, an attorney for the families that sought the restraining order, said the church had still not been served the order as of Tuesday afternoon and expressed concern that the demolition could still proceed.

Christine Earnhardt, a secretary for the church, said Tuesday that she could not confirm whether a demolition was scheduled and that the church had no plans to comment or make a statement.

Following the shooting, the sanctuary was turned into a memorial. The interior was painted white and chairs with the names of those who were killed were placed there, the lawsuit said.

The church then voted in 2021 to tear down the building, which opponents have contended was against the wishes of many surviving family members. A new church was completed for the congregation about a year and a half after the shooting.

“We're not after money. We're after what's fair,” Fugate said. “We want our clients to say their peace about whether the church should stand and take another vote.”

Amber Holder, a church member who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said she wanted to make sure survivors of the shooting and the victims' families have a vote. "So many victims’ families were told: ‘You’re not allowed to vote because you’re no longer a member here,’” Holder said.

Holder said she wasn’t at the service the day of the shooting but got there shortly after. As a teen she was taken in by the family of the pastor at the time, whose 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, was among those killed.

Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, said that as news of the upcoming demolition spread in the community of less than 1,000 people, those she had spoken with were “devastated.” Smith said that a woman who was like a daughter to her — Joann Ward — and her two daughters, ages 7 and 5, were among those killed in the shooting.

Smith, who is not a member of the church, said she often visits the memorial sanctuary. “It’s just a beautiful, beautiful memorial the way it is now,” she said.

“You feel the comfort of everybody that was lost there,” Smith said.

Communities across the U.S. have grappled with what should happen to the sites of mass shootings. Last month, demolition began on the three-story building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, it was torn down and replaced.

Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, and the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where racist mass shootings happened, both reopened. In Colorado, Columbine High School still stands — though its library, where most of the victims were killed, was replaced.

In Texas, officials closed Robb Elementary in Uvalde after the 2022 shooting there and plan to demolish it.

Stengle contributed to this report from Dallas. Associated Press reporter Paul J. Weber contributed to this report from Austin.

FILE - A man walks out of the memorial for the victims of a shooting at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Nov. 12, 2017. After the shooting on Nov. 5, in which 26 people were killed and 20 others were wounded, the church was repaired and turned into a memorial sanctuary. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Karen Johns visits the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, which is now a memorial to the 26 people who were killed by a gunman in 2017. The 100-year-old building has served as a memorial since the shooting, but now some want to raze the building. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Onlookers visit the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, which is now a memorial to the 26 people who were killed by a gunman in 2017. The 100-year-old building has served as a memorial since the shooting, but now some want to raze the building. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2017, file photo, a memorial for the victims of the shooting at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church, including 26 white chairs each painted with a cross and and rose, is displayed in the church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Karen Johns visits the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, which is now a memorial to the 26 people who were killed by a gunman in 2017. The 100-year-old building has served as a memorial since the shooting, but now some want to raze the building. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

FILE - In this Nov. 12, 2017, file photo, a rose rests on a chair during a memorial for the victims of the shooting at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church at the church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

A woman visits the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, which is now a memorial to the 26 people who were killed by a gunman in 2017. The 100-year-old building has served as a memorial since the shooting, but now some want to raze the building. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A sign is seen at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, which stands next to the old sanctuary that is now a memorial to the 26 people who were killed by a gunman in 2017. The 100-year-old building has served as a memorial since the shooting, but now some want to raze the building. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Karen Johns visits the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, which is now a memorial to the 26 people who were killed by a gunman in 2017. The 100-year-old building has served as a memorial since the shooting, but now some want to raze the building. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A woman visits the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, which is now a memorial to the 26 people who were killed by a gunman in 2017. The 100-year-old building has served as a memorial since the shooting, but now some want to raze the building. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers delivered another healthy month of hiring in June, adding 206,000 jobs and once again displaying the U.S. economy’s ability to withstand high interest rates.

Last month’s job growth did mark a pullback from 218,000 in May. But it was still a solid gain, reflecting the resilience of America’s consumer-driven economy, which is slowing but still growing steadily.

Still, Friday’s report from the Labor Department contained several signs of a slowing job market. The unemployment rate ticked up from 4% to 4.1%, a still-low number but the highest rate since November 2021. The rate rose in large part because 277,000 people began looking for work in June, and not all of them found jobs right away.

The government also sharply revised down its estimate of job growth for April and May by a combined 111,000. And it said average hourly pay rose just 0.3% from May and 3.9% from June 2023. The year-over-year figure was the smallest such rise since June 2021 and will likely be welcomed by the Federal Reserve in its drive to fully conquer inflation.

In addition, just two sectors — government and a category that includes healthcare and social assistance, neither of which captures the economy's underlying strength — accounted for roughly three-quarters of June's job growth.

Economists also noted that job growth from April through June averaged 177,000, a decent figure but still the lowest three-month average since January 2021.

Other economists, while agreeing that the job market is slowing, suggested that it remains resilient.

“Both May and June hiring was above 200,000 even after revisions, and the trajectory looks stable," said Eric Winograd, U.S. economist at AllianceBernstein. "The best available evidence is that the labor market remains strong and that any deceleration remains modest.”

The state of the economy is weighing heavily on voters’ minds as the presidential campaign intensifies. Despite consistent hiring, relatively few layoffs and gradually cooling inflation, many Americans have been exasperated by still-high prices and assign blame to President Joe Biden.

Economists been repeatedly predicting that the job market would lose momentum in the face of the high interest rates engineered by the Fed, only to see the hiring gains show unexpected strength. Still, signs of an economic slowdown have emerged in the face of the Fed’s series of rate hikes. The U.S. gross domestic product — the total output of goods and services — grew at a lethargic annual pace of 1.4% from January through March, the slowest quarterly pace in nearly two years.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of all U.S. economic activity and which has powered the expansion the past three years, rose at just a 1.5% pace last quarter after growing more than 3% in each of the previous two quarters. In addition, the number of advertised job openings has declined steadily since peaking at a record 12.2 million in March 2022.

At the same time, while employers might not be hiring so aggressively after having struggled to fill jobs the past two years, they aren’t cutting many, either. Most workers are enjoying an unusual level of job security.

During 2022 and 2023, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times to try to conquer the worst streak of inflation in four decades, lifting its key rate to its highest point in 23 years. The punishingly higher borrowing rates that resulted, for consumers and businesses, were widely expected to trigger a recession. They didn’t. The economy and the job market instead have shown surprising resilience.

Meanwhile, inflation has steadily declined from a 9.1% peak in 2022 to 3.3%. In remarks this week at a conference in Portugal, Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that price increases in the United States were slowing again after higher readings earlier this year. But, he cautioned, further evidence that inflation is moving toward the Fed’s 2% target level would be needed before the policymakers would cut rates.

Most economists think the Fed will begin cutting its benchmark rate in September, and the details in Friday's jobs report did nothing to counter that expectation.

“This is the kind of report that the Federal Reserve wants to see,’’ said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. “This looks pretty darn good. The labor market is not as strong as it was last year at this time. But the labor market at that time was unsustainably strong.’’

AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

FILE - Samantha Grimison makes a cup of coffee at the Blind Tiger Cafe on Jan. 10, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. On Friday, June 5, 2024, the U.S. government issues its June jobs report. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

FILE - Assembly line worker Lashunta Harris applies the Ford logo on a 2024 Ford F-150 truck being assembled at the Dearborn Truck Plant, April 11, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. On Friday, June 5, 2024, the U.S. government issues its June jobs report. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)