Two women killed during a brazen daylight shooting at Richmond Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, on Sunday have been identified as a beloved mother and daughter who loved serving the Lord.
Beverly Gumm, 72, and her 32-year-old daughter, Christina Combs, were fatally shot after 47-year-old Guy House, also deceased, went on a shooting rampage at the church after he shot and injured a Kentucky State Police trooper at the Blue Grass Airport, Lex 18 reported.
Star Rutherford, one of Gumm’s daughters and Combs’ sister, told the Lexington Herald Leader that she and her mother were cooking lunch in the church’s fellowship hall on Sunday afternoon when a man, now identified as House, came through the back door and asked for another one of her sisters. Rutherford’s other sisters, Dasey “Patches” Rutherford and Rachel Barnes also spoke with the publication about what happened.
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When House was told the sister he was looking for wasn’t at the church, he reportedly declared, “Well, someone is gonna have to die, then,” and opened fire.
Gumm ducked to avoid House’s first shot, but a second one hit her in the chest, and it was fatal. House later went outside the church, where he fatally shot Combs. He also shot Gumm’s husband and longtime pastor of the church, Jerry Gumm, and Combs’ husband, Randy Combs. Both men were reportedly in critical but stable condition at the University of Kentucky hospital on Sunday night.
Prior to the shooting attack at the church, House allegedly shot a state trooper at about 11:30 a.m. outside the Blue Grass Airport after he tried to pull him over. He later carjacked another vehicle in a different part of town.
The sisters who shared what they saw in the church couldn’t come up with a reason for House’s attack, but the Lexington Herald Leader reported that House had been scheduled for a domestic violence hearing on Monday morning.
He reportedly also had a lengthy criminal history and had previously been violent toward law enforcement. He was only released from probation in January, according to court records.
Star Rutherford said her mother had eight children and described her as a “faithful member of the church who loved God.” Patches Rutherford remembered her mother as someone who loved to feed “homeless people, drug addicts, strangers.”
Barnes said Combs was a mother of five, including a 6-month-old baby. She said Combs was expected to graduate from nursing school in December.
She said both her mother and sister were “fantastic moms” and died doing what they loved to do: “serving the Lord.”
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