The breaking news yesterday was grim again and involved a church, again.
In this instance, however, it wasn’t the religion being targeted; it was a specific individual who was supposed to normally be in the congregation of the tiny Baptist chapel on any given Sunday.
…”This church was a small church and the majority of the individuals there are biologically related in some way or another. If not, they’ve been friends for many, many years,” Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said during the press conference. “They’re a very tight-knit group of people.”
The first reports were really chaotic, as you’d expect, but they shook out after just a few hours.
A Kentucky state trooper pulled over a vehicle near Lexington, Kentucky, on Terminal Drive near the airport. The trooper had gotten a license plate reader alert, and while talking to the vehicle occupant on the side of the road, the trooper was shot, and the driver fled.
…Larissa McLaughlin, who was at the airport with her husband, witnessed the beginning of the carnage while dropping off a rental car.
“It looked routine. He was outside talking to him through an open window,” McLaughlin told Lex 18. “And as we were driving by, I heard, ‘pop, pop’ and I knew it was gunshots.”
Shortly afterward, the driver carjacked another vehicle, and somehow officers were able to track that car to the Richmond Road Baptist Church, where arriving officers found that a number of churchgoers had been shot and grievously wounded.
The officers on the scene immediately confronted the gunman and took him out.
At first, everyone thought from the scanty reports available that no one but the gunman had been killed and that he randomly dove into this little rural church for shelter from pursuit.
Sadly, both were proven horribly wrong.
There were two church ladies murdered at the scene. The deranged criminal fleeing police had come specifically to THAT place, knowing another of their relatives would be there, who was the mother of his children.
When it turned out she wasn’t, and he took his insane anger out on her mother and sister.
The gunman who killed two people and wounded three during a shooting rampage at a rural Kentucky church chillingly said, “Someone’s gonna have to die,” when he discovered the mother of his three children wasn’t there.
Beverly Gumm and her daughter, Star Rutherford, were in the basement of Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington on Sunday afternoon, preparing lunch for their congregation, when the shooter barged in demanding to speak with one of Rutherford’s sisters, the mother of his three kids, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
Rutherford and her mother told the gunman, identified as Guy House, that she wasn’t there.
The deranged shooter then told them, “Well, someone’s gonna have to die then,” and opened fire, Rutherford told the outlet.
Gumm — a 72-year-old mother of eight — was able to avoid the first shot by ducking out of the way, but was then struck in the chest by the second shot, killing her.
He then exited the church and shot and killed Rutherford’s other sister, Christina Combs, 34, outside.
He then shot the pastor and Mrs Combs’ husband, critically injuring both men before arriving law enforcement was able to neutralize him and end the carnage.
There is some speculation that it was over a custody dispute, with Mrs Rutherford and her daughters working to protect her daughter and her family by concealing their whereabouts, earning the murderer’s enmity.
We’ve heard about these sorts of situations before, and they tear your heart out.
But what really got my goat was wondering what this guy was doing rampaging across the countryside to begin with. Why wasn’t he in prison?
He was a felon with active warrants and gun three years ago, when he pulled this stunt.
Part of North Broadway just before the exit onto the I-64/ I-75 interchange in Lexington was shut down Sunday for several hours. It has since reopened.
A police spokesperson says just before 2 p.m. officers observed a subject known to have active warrants near the Ramada Inn on North Broadway.
When they attempted to make contact he was seen with a firearm and then fled into a wooded area at the intersection of North Broadway and I-75.
Several police units, including Lexington Police, Kentucky State Police and SWAT officials were on scene including a police helicopter flying overhead in the area. Negotiators were also called out and a perimeter was established.
Oh, yes. The same murderous Mr. House scampered around the area of the interstate interchange in Lexington, causing the entire freeway system to be shut down for almost five hours, and you can imagine the massive backup thanks to it.
When police finally caught up to and had him boxed in, they had to negotiate before he would surrender.
We now know the name man who police say caused a major backup on Interstate 75 on Sunday.
According to arrest citations, Guy House II is facing a long list of charges.
Police say they tried to arrest House around 2 p.m. Sunday near the Ramada Inn on North Broadway for outstanding warrants. When they made contact, they say officers saw he had a gun.
Officers say he ran off into a wooded area near North Broadway and the interstate. They shut down that area.
It took officers hours to negotiate with House. The roadway reopened just before 7 p.m.
House’s charges include possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and wanton endangerment of a police officer. House’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for this Friday, September 16.
I did not know some cities had a ‘Wanted of the Week’ award, but in Lexington, this scumbag was it. The local Fox station cuts off the report just as they began rattling off all of his previous run-ins with law enforcement.
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How was this guy not in prison for the weapons offense as a multiple convicted felon?
I mean, these booking shots go back to 2016 and they may have missed a couple. There are tons of probation violations and ‘record removals.’ I’m not sure what that means in legal terms – deals struck with prosecutors?
As I said, I don’t know.
But I do know he was already a convicted felon caught with a gun in 2022, who was able to murder two women only three years later.
Now, if you’re on X or any of the social media pouncy sites, there are as many purported photos of the turd in a keffiyeh as there are of him in a Confederate t-shirt, or with framed Trump/Vance portraits behind him.
I’m not falling for any of that crap, not even 24 hours later, and frankly, it’s beside the point.
Two innocent women are dead, and others are critically injured, because the state of Kentucky and/or the local authorities in the Lexington area couldn’t put a psychotic animal behind bars for repeated offenses with a dangerous weapon.
If ever there was a ‘he was on our radar’ asshat, this guy’s been lighting up the screen for years.
But it’s your guns they want to take every single time they allow these creatures to kill.
Sure would be interesting to hear why the man was still walking and stalking the streets.
