The Sun
Joe Schuler
Staff Writer
Tara McNulty, age 33, was a single mother of two adolescent children who worked two jobs in order to support her family. She had a matching mermaid keychain with her best friend and is now remembered as “sarcastic and sweet.” She was murdered.
Dennis Neil Johnson Sr., age 77, had just celebrated his 44th anniversary with his wife, Sara Louise Johns Johnson, age 68. They were both murdered at the same time. They left behind a daughter, Kati Wall, who was devastated by the loss of her parents.
Annabelle Pomeroy, age 14, was the daughter of a pastor; her parents called her Belle. She was described as being very close with her family. She too, was murdered. Hours after her murder, her mother posted an image of her on social media, showing an extremely happy child playing in a swimming pool.
Emily Garza, age 5, Joann Ward, age 30, and Brooke Ward, age 5, are all members of a tight-knit family in the American South. Brooke was the daughter of Joann, and Emily was a close cousin of Brooke. All three of them were brutally murdered, while Ryland Ward, son of Joann and sibling to Brooke, was injured in the same attack.
The seven individuals described above range in age from 5 to 77, come from both genders and multiple ethnic backgrounds. These are seven different individuals who were all murdered, with very little to connect them. Their primary common thread stems from the fact that they, along with nineteen other individuals, were all murdered at the same time on Nov. 5, 2017.
Devin Patrick Kelley entered a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and shot at everybody in the building. He ended up killing a total of twenty-seven individuals, including himself. Sutherland Springs, being a small town, lost a full 7 percent of its population in a span of fifteen seconds. The gun used in the shooting was an AR 556, an automatic weapon which at one point was banned in the United States.
A civilian hero chased the murdered in a high-speed car chase down the highway until the murderer crashed his car into a tree on the side of the road. Both the civilian and the shooter had guns. It is unclear whether or not the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound or if the civilian shot him.
In Sutherland Springs, McNulty was also a local bartender. Pomeroy was the daughter of the pastor preaching at the church. The Ward family had more family watching the events of that day unfold on the local television station, knowing their family was inside the church. One man chose to end the lives of each of them, thinking he had the right to choose when their lives needed to come to an end. These victims and the community which surrounded them have suffered a great loss, but the faces will never be forgotten.
The complete list of deaths from the shooting, excluding the shooter, is as follows: Robert Scott Marshall, 56, Karen Sue Marshall, 56, Keith Allen Braden, 62, Tara E. McNulty, 33, Annabelle Renae Pomeroy, 14, Peggy Lynn Warden, 56, Dennis Neil Johnson, Sr., 77, Sara Johns Johnson, 68, Lula Wojcinski White, 71, Joann Lookingbill Ward, 30, Brooke Bryanne Ward, 5, Robert Michael Corrigan, 51, Shani Louise Corrigan, 51, Therese Sagan Rodriguez, 66, Ricardo Cardona Rodriguez, 64, Haley Krueger, 16, Emily Garcia (died at the hospital), 7, Emily Rose Hill, 11, Gregory Lynn Hill, 13, Megan Gail Hill, 9, Marc Daniel Holcombe, 36, Noah Holcombe, 1, Karla Plain Holcombe, 58, John Bryan Holcombe, 60, Crystal Marie Holcombe, 36, Carlin Brite “Billy Bob” Holcombe (unborn).
THE CAROLINIAN 
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