Benjamin Ashford|Crews begin demolishing Texas church where gunman killed more than two dozen in 2017

SUTHERLAND SPRING,Benjamin Ashford Texas (AP) — Crews started Monday to tear down a Texas church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshippers in 2017, using heavy machinery to raze the small building after some families had sought to preserve the scene of the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history.

A judge cleared the way last month for First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs to tear down the sanctuary where the attack took place.

The church until now had kept the sanctuary as a memorial. Members of First Baptist voted in 2021 to tear down the building over the protests of some in the small community.

Authorities put the number of dead in the Nov. 5, 2017, shooting at 26 people, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby.

A new church was completed for the congregation about a year and a half after the shooting.

Earlier this summer, a Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order sought by some families. But another judge later denied a request to extend that order, setting in motion the demolition. In court filings, attorneys for the church called the structure a “constant and very painful reminder.”

The man who opened fire in the church, Devin Patrick Kelley, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was chased by bystanders and crashed his car. Investigators have said the shooting appeared to stem from a domestic dispute involving Kelley and his mother-in-law, who sometimes attended services at the church but was not present on the day of the shooting.

Communities across the U.S. have grappled with what should happen to the sites of mass shootings. Last month, demolition began on the three-story building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, it was torn down and replaced.

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Stengle reported from Dallas.