SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Crews on Monday tore down a Texas church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshippers 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 U.S. 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. Church members voted in 2021 to tear it down, but some families in the community of less than 1,000 people filed a lawsuit hoping for a new vote on the building’s fate.
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A demolition worker walks across the slab of what was the First Baptist Church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A demolition worker walks across the slab of what was the First Baptist Church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers continue demolition of the First Baptist Church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the Sutherland Springs church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A woman passes by as workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
John Riley, 86, watches as workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
FILE - Christina Osborn and her children Alexander Osborn and Bella Araiza visit a makeshift memorial for the victims of the shooting at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, Nov. 12, 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - Karen Johns visits the First Baptist Church, now a memorial to the 26 people who were killed by a gunman in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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.
John Riley, an 86-year-old member of the church, watched with sadness and disappointment as the long arm of a yellow excavator swung a heavy claw into the building over and over.
“The devil got his way,” Riley said, “I would not be the man I am without that church.”
He said he would pray for God to “punish the ones” who put the demolition in motion.
“That was God’s house, not their house,” Riley said.
For many in the community, the sanctuary was a place of solace.
Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, visited often over the years, calling it a place where “you feel the comfort of everybody that was lost there.” Among those killed in the shooting were a woman who was like a daughter to Smith — Joann Ward — and Ward’s two daughters, ages 7 and 5.
Smith watched Monday as the memorial sanctuary was torn down.
“I am sad, angry, hurt,” she said.
In early July, a Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order sought by some families. But another judge later denied a request to extend that order, setting in motion the demolition. In court filings, attorneys for the church called the structure a “constant and very painful reminder."
Attorneys for the church argued that it was within its rights to demolish the memorial while the attorney for the families who filed the lawsuit said they were just hoping to get a new vote.
“It’s a very somber day for us,” said Amber Holder, a church member who was a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
She said she wasn’t at the service on the day of the shooting but arrived soon after. As a teen, she was taken in by the family of the pastor, whose 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, was among those killed.
Holder said the church had become a piece of history and that the scars on the building from that day, including bullet holes, were a powerful reminder of what happened.
“Tearing it down, no good comes from that,” Holder said.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that some church members were wrongfully removed from the church roster before the vote was taken. In a court filing, the church denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
A woman who answered the phone at the church said Monday that she had no comment then hung up.
The man who opened fire in the church, Devin Patrick Kelley, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was chased by bystanders and crashed his car. Investigators have said the shooting appeared to stem from a domestic dispute involving Kelley and his mother-in-law, who sometimes attended services at the church but was not present on the day of the shooting.
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 the school.
Stengle reported from Dallas.
A demolition worker walks across the slab of what was the First Baptist Church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A demolition worker walks across the slab of what was the First Baptist Church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers continue demolition of the First Baptist Church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the Sutherland Springs church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A woman passes by as workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
John Riley, 86, watches as workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
FILE - Christina Osborn and her children Alexander Osborn and Bella Araiza visit a makeshift memorial for the victims of the shooting at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, Nov. 12, 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - Karen Johns visits the First Baptist Church, now a memorial to the 26 people who were killed by a gunman in 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Workers begin demolition of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the United States to again withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the U.S. from its closest allies.
Trump's action, hours after he was sworn in to a second term, echoed his directive in 2017, when he announced that the U.S. would abandon the global Paris accord. The pact is aimed at limiting long-term global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels or, failing that, keeping temperatures at least well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels.
Trump also signed a letter to the United Nations indicating his intention to withdraw from the 2015 agreement, which allows nations to provide targets to cut their own emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Those targets are supposed to become more stringent over time, with countries facing a February 2025 deadline for new individual plans. The outgoing Biden administration last month offered a plan to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035.
Trump's order says the Paris accord is among a number of international agreements that don't reflect U.S. values and “steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people."
Instead of joining a global agreement, “the United States’ successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should be a model for other countries,'' Trump said.
Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a key architect of the Paris accord, called the planned U.S. withdrawal unfortunate but said action to slow climate change “is stronger than any single country’s politics and policies."
The global context for Trump's action is “very different to 2017,'' Tubiana said Monday, adding that “there is unstoppable economic momentum behind the global transition, which the U.S has gained from and led but now risks forfeiting."
The International Energy Agency expects the global market for key clean energy technologies to triple to more than $2 trillion by 2035, she said.
“The impacts of the climate crisis are also worsening. The terrible wildfires in Los Angeles are the latest reminder that Americans, like everyone else, are affected by worsening climate change,” Tubiana said.
Gina McCarthy, who served as White House climate adviser under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said that if Trump, a Republican, “truly wants America to lead the global economy, become energy independent and create good-paying American jobs," then he must “stay focused on growing our clean energy industry. Clean technologies are driving down energy costs for people all across our country."
The world is now long-term 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 degrees Celsius) above mid-1800s temperatures. Most but not all climate monitoring agencies said global temperatures last year passed the warming mark of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and all said it was the warmest year on record.
The withdrawal process from the Paris accord takes one year. Trump’s previous withdrawal took effect the day after the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden.
While the first Trump-led withdrawal from the landmark U.N. agreement — adopted by 196 nations — shocked and angered nations across the globe, “not a single country followed the U.S. out the door,” said Alden Meyer, a longtime climate negotiations analyst with the European think tank E3G.
Instead, other nations renewed their commitment to slowing climate change, along with investors, businesses, governors, mayors and others in the U.S., Meyer and other experts said.
Still, they lamented the loss of U.S. leadership in global efforts to slow climate change, even as the world is on track to set yet another record hot year and has been lurching from drought to hurricane to flood to wildfire.
“Clearly America is not going to play the commanding role in helping solve the climate crisis, the greatest dilemma humans have ever encountered,″ said climate activist and writer Bill McKibben. “For the next few years the best we can hope is that Washington won’t manage to wreck the efforts of others.”
About half of Americans “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose U.S. action to withdraw from the climate accord, and even Republicans aren’t overwhelmingly in favor, according according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults “somewhat” or “strongly” in favor of withdrawing from the Paris agreement, while about one-quarter are neutral.
Much of the opposition to U.S. withdrawal comes from Democrats, but Republicans display some ambivalence as well. Slightly less than half of Republicans are in favor of withdrawing from the climate accord, while about 2 in 10 are opposed.
China several years ago passed the United States as the world's largest annual carbon dioxide emitting nation. The U.S. — the second biggest annual carbon polluting country — put 4.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in the air in 2023, down 11% from a decade earlier, according to the scientists who track emissions for the Global Carbon Project.
But carbon dioxide lasts in the atmosphere for centuries, so the United States has put more of the heat-trapping gas that is now in the air than any other nation. The U.S. is responsible for nearly 22% of the carbon dioxide put in the atmosphere since 1950, according to Global Carbon Project.
While global efforts to fight climate change continued during Trump's first term, many experts worry that a second Trump term will be more damaging, with the United States withdrawing even further from climate efforts in a way that could cripple future presidents’ efforts. With Trump, who has dismissed climate change, in charge of the world’s leading economy, those experts fear other countries, especially China, could use it as an excuse to ease off their own efforts to curb carbon emissions.
Simon Stiell, the U.N. climate change executive secretary, held out hope that the U.S. would continue to embrace the global clean energy boom.
“Ignoring it only sends all that vast wealth to competitor economies, while climate disasters like droughts, wildfires and superstorms keep getting worse," Stiell said. “The door remains open to the Paris Agreement, and we welcome constructive engagement from any and all countries.”
Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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