Pence travels to Texas to comfort families after church shooting

FLORESVILLE, Texas — Vice President Mike Pence comforted families of the victims slain in the Sutherland Springs church massacre at a prayer vigil Wednesday held on a high school football field.

“Three days ago, evil descended on a small town and a small church, not far from here,” Pence said. “We gather tonight in the wake of an unspeakable act.”

The vice president met with law enforcement officials in Sutherland Springs, and talked with the pastor of First Baptist Church and the two local men who engaged the killer in a shootout and high-speed chase that Pence said limited the carnage and saved lives.

Families of those killed in the shooting, neighbors and well-wishers huddled under blankets and packed one side of the high school stadium to hear the vice president speak.

Pence paid tribute to the “saints and heroes” in a very religious speech to the community.

“Faith is stronger than evil,” Pence said to applause. “No attack, no act of violence will ever break our spirit or diminish the faith of the American people.”

Condolence speeches and the ritual of compassion is familiar to Las Vegas and other cities of recent gun violence.

Last month, President Donald Trump traveled to Nevada to meet with victims of the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting, where 58 people were killed and more than 500 wounded by a sniper firing from his 32nd-floor room at nearby Mandalay Bay.

Trump was traveling in Asia on Wednesday.

Pence told the crowd of hundreds gathered on the Floresville High School field that as Trump promised Sunday, halfway around the world, “We will never leave your side.”

“The faith in this community has inspired the nation,” Pence said.

Pence and wife, Karen, arrived at a San Antonio military air base with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and Will Hurd, R-Texas.

The vice president said more than 100 FBI agents are working on the case in the Lone Star State.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, both Republicans, joined the vice president and shooting victims of the church massacre who are recovering from gunshot wounds at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

Later, residents from local communities poured into the school’s football stadium to take part in the prayer vigil.

Raynell Odom, a nurse practitioner from Floresville, said she lost two patients in the church shooting. She came to hear the vice president and be with families and friends from the community.

Odom said support, emotional and financial, has been overwhelming.

“It makes me proud to live here,” she said.

Odom said it was important, and appreciated, that the vice president and other dignitaries took time to come to this corner of the nation.

“I think if our president were in the country, he would be right here,” she said.

Sutherland Springs, a small rural community about 35 miles southeast of San Antonio, was ripped apart Nov. 5 when a masked, armor-clad gunman attacked the local church, methodically killing 26 people and wounding dozens more.

“This is a time when the people need the hugs and the kind words, because right now there’s a lot of tears on the streets of Sutherland Springs,” said Cuellar, who represents the small south Texas community.

Cuellar said everybody in the town knows everyone who was killed, everyone who was hurt.

“It’s very emotional,” he said.

Devin Kelley, 26, of nearby New Braunfels, Texas, sent threatening text messages to his mother-in-law, a church member who was not in attendance that Sunday, law enforcement officials said.

An official told The Associated Press that law enforcement was reviewing a videotape of the church shootings that show the armor-clad gunman, wearing a skull mask, walking down the center aisle and shooting congregants in the head.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Rangers are investigating the crime. Freeman Martin, a DPS regional director, said a domestic dispute likely prompted the crime and that law enforcement had ruled out racial or religious motives for the shooting.

Kelley, an Air Force veteran discharged following a court-martial on domestic abuse charges, is believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a shootout outside the church with a good Samaritan.

The Las Vegas attacker, Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite is also believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Las Vegas attack, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, occurred Oct. 1.

Pence met privately with families of those killed in the Sutherland Springs church shooting at Floresville High School. Sessions and Abbott also met with those family members, before the officials spoke to those huddled in the football field bleachers.

Earlier, Pence was briefed on the investigation into the mass shooting at the church. He blamed bureaucratic failures for the crime and told Sutherland Springs officials that he was working with Congress to “ensure this never happens again.”

The killer, Pence said, committed a crime even buying the weapon and not disclosing his mental health history.

“He lied on the application,” the vice president said.

Pence assured law enforcement and community officials that he was working to make resources available to help with the investigation.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.