Sutherland Springs, Texas | |
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Coordinates: 29°16′24″N98°03′24″W / 29.27333°N 98.05667°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Texas |
County | Wilson |
Established | 1854 |
Founded by | John Sutherland |
Elevation | 469 ft (143 m) |
Population (2017) | |
• Total | 600 |
Time zone | UTC-6 (CST) |
ZIP code | 78161 |
Website | Handbook of Texas |
Sutherland Springs is an unincorporated community located on the old Spanish land grant of Manuel Tarin in northern Wilson County, Texas, United States. It is located on U.S. Highway 87 at the intersection of Farm to Market Road 539.
On November 5 2017, Sutherland Springs local church became the scene of the deadliest shooting in a place of worship in the United States when 25 people, including one pregnant person, were killed and 22 other were injured, before the shooter committed suicide.
Sutherland Springs was platted in 1854, and named after John Sutherland Jr., a pioneer citizen. [2] A post office has been in operation at Sutherland Springs since 1851. [3]
On November 5, 2017, Devin Patrick Kelley shot 26 people dead and injured 22 at the community's First Baptist Church. The gunfire was heard by Stephen Willeford, a church neighbor and former NRA instructor, who grabbed his weapon and ran toward the scene barefoot. [4] [5] Willeford seriously wounded Kelley in a rapid exchange of gunfire, then corralled a nearby car and chased Kelley as he tried to flee the scene in his truck. After a high-speed chase, Kelley succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was found dead in a roadside ditch. [4] It was the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history, surpassing the Luby's shooting in October 1991 and the fifth deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States. [6] [7]
Old Sutherland Springs occupies a portion of the south bank of Cibolo Creek, with New Sutherland Springs (which is mostly in ruins) on the north bank of the creek.[ citation needed ]
Wilson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 49,753. Its county seat is Floresville. The county is named after James Charles Wilson. Wilson County is part of the San Antonio–New Braunfels, Texas, metropolitan statistical area.
La Vernia is a city in Wilson County, Texas, United States. La Vernia is on the south bank of Cibolo Creek at the junction of U.S. Highway 87 and Texas Farm to Market Road 775, approximately 25 miles east of downtown San Antonio. The population was 1,077 at the 2020 census. La Vernia is part of the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Columbine High School (CHS) is a public high school in Columbine, Colorado, United States, in the Denver metropolitan area. It is part of the Jefferson County Public Schools district.
A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a armed confrontation entailing firearms between armed parties using guns, always entailing intense disagreement(s) between the fighting parties. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to describe combat situations primarily using firearms.
Concrete is a ghost town in southwestern Guadalupe County, Texas, United States, alongside the present Farm to Market Road 775, approximately 2 miles (3 km) north of La Vernia and 6 miles (10 km) south of New Berlin.
Kicaster is an unincorporated community in northwestern Wilson County, Texas, United States.
Grass Pond Colony was located at the site of several large natural ponds which remain filled by water year-round due to natural springs. It is located in the northern part of Wilson County, Texas, United States, approximately five miles south of Sutherland Springs.
Cibolo Creek is a stream in South Central Texas that runs approximately 96 miles (154 km) from its source at Turkey Knob near Boerne, Texas, to its confluence with the San Antonio River in Karnes County. The creek is a tributary of the San Antonio River, at the easternmost part of its watershed.
Doseido Colony was a small historic settlement which was located in western Wilson County, Texas, United States, one mile north of FM 775, at the intersection of county roads 321 and 361.
Sandy Hills was a small historic settlement which was located in western Wilson County, Texas United States, five miles west of La Vernia at the intersection of county roads 321 and 361. The settlement is now depopulated, with the sole remaining building being a small brick school house.
Elm Creek is the name of two separate streams that rise in Guadalupe County southwest of Seguin in South Central Texas, United States. The western Elm Creek runs approximately 14 miles from its source about 8.6 miles southwest of Seguin in southwestern Guadalupe County, to its confluence with Cibolo Creek, two miles east of La Vernia in Wilson County. The eastern Elm Creek originates 9.4 miles southwest of Seguin, and proceeds southeast through Guadalupe County, where it discharges into Cottonwood Creek, which itself flows into the Guadalupe River.
On July 9, 2014, a mass shooting occurred in a home located in northern Harris County, Texas, near the Spring census-designated place, a suburban area of the Greater Houston area, leaving six family members dead, four children, and a lone survivor. Ronald Lee Haskell, 34, was apprehended after a standoff that lasted several hours. Haskell was related to the victims via his ex-wife.
Mass shootings are incidents involving multiple victims of firearm related violence. Definitions vary, with no single, broadly accepted definition. One definition is an act of public firearm violence—excluding gang killings, domestic violence, or terrorist acts sponsored by an organization—in which a shooter kills at least four victims. Using this definition, a 2016 study found that nearly one-third of the world's public mass shootings between 1966 and 2012 occurred in the United States, In 2017 The New York Times recorded the same total of mass shootings for that span of years. A 2023 report published in JAMA covering 2014 to 2022, found there had been 4,011 mass shootings in the US, most frequent around the southeastern U.S. and Illinois. This was true for mass shootings that were crime-violence, social-violence, and domestic violence-related. The highest rate was found in the District of Columbia, followed by Louisiana and Illinois.
On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada from his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel. He fired more than 1,000 rounds, killing 60 people and wounding at least 413. The ensuing panic brought the total number of injured to approximately 867. About an hour later, he was found dead in his room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The motive for the shooting is officially undetermined.
On November 5, 2017, at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a local man, Devin Kelley, shot and killed 26 people and wounded 22 others. Kelley was shot and wounded by another local resident, then killed himself after a car chase. It is the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history and the deadliest at an American place of worship, surpassing the Charleston church shooting of 2015.
This section of the timeline of United States history includes major events from 2010 to the present.
On November 7, 2018, a mass shooting occurred in Thousand Oaks, California, United States, at the Borderline Bar and Grill, a country-western bar frequented by college students. Thirteen people were killed, including the perpetrator, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and a police officer who was shot multiple times, with the fatal round accidentally being fired by another officer. One other person sustained a gunshot wound, while fifteen others were injured by incidental causes.
On November 19–20, 2022, an anti-LGBT-motivated mass shooting occurred at Club Q, a gay bar in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. Five people were murdered, and 25 others were injured, 19 of them by gunfire. The shooter, 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, was also injured while being restrained, and was taken to a local hospital. Aldrich was then charged and remanded in custody. On June 26, 2023, Aldrich pled guilty to the shooting and state level charges and was officially sentenced to a total of five consecutive life terms plus an additional consecutive 2,211 years, all without the possibility of parole. On January 16, 2024, Aldrich was additionally charged with 50 federal hate crimes in connection with the shooting. On June 18, 2024, Aldrich pleaded guilty to the federal charges and was sentenced to 55 concurrent life sentences without parole, plus a consecutive 190 years.