"The devil got his way," one churchgoer said. Church members voted in 2021 to tear it down, but community members filed a lawsuit hoping for a new vote on the building's fate.
There have been over a dozen shootings at US houses of worship since 2012, according to the Associated Press.
A new church has broken ground in Sutherland Springs six months after a gunman killed more than two dozen people during a Sunday service.
In the wake of the massacre at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church last month, a lot of attention has been focused on security at places of worship.
Ryland Ward, 5, survived being shot five times inside the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.
Investigators found several dozen cases where criminal convictions were not reported to the FBI.