Gunman Opens Fire At Kentucky Church After Shooting State Trooper, 2 Dead

A man reportedly looking for his wife at a Lexington, Kentucky, church gunned down a grandmother of eight and her daughter after shooting a state trooper near the city’s airport on Sunday. The gunman also shot the two women’s husbands, one of whom is the pastor at the church, before police responding to the emergency shot and killed him.

The suspected shooter, Guy House, 47, shot a state trooper outside Blue Grass Airport before fleeing, then carjacked a vehicle and headed to Richmond Road Baptist Church, the Lexington Herald Leader reported. The small church is comprised mainly of families related to one another, Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said.

Beverly Gumm, 72, and her daughter, Star Rutherford, were cooking lunch in the basement of the church on Sunday afternoon when House barged in and asked for his wife, the mother of their three children, who is Gumm’s daughter and Rutherford’s sister. When they informed him she wasn’t there, he said, “Well, someone is gonna have to die, then,” and started shooting, Rutherford told the Herald-Leader, which added, “Gumm, 72, ducked and avoided the first shot, but the second hit her in the chest, killing her. The man then went outside and shot and killed another of Rutherford’s sisters — Christina Combs, 32 — and injured two others: Gumm’s husband and the longtime pastor of the church, Jerry Gumm, and Combs’ husband, Randy Combs.”

Another daughter of Gumm’s, Rachael Barnes, said Combs had five children, including a 6-month-old baby, and had plans to graduate from nursing school in December. Of her slain mother and sister, she said, “They were both fantastic moms.” She said Jerry Gumm and Randy Combs were in critical but stable condition. The injured trooper is reportedly also in stable condition.

Star Rutherford said she held her mother as she died. Gumm’s surviving daughters said she was a “faithful member of the church who loved God,” and her “love language” was feeding “homeless people, drug addicts, strangers.”

“In 2022, the Lexington Police Department and Madison County Sheriff’s office featured House as the Crimestoppers ‘Wanted Person of the Week,’” Fox 56 reported. “He was wanted for wanton endangerment of a police officer.” Other charges against House included theft of a vehicle, fleeing and evading, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, and receiving stolen property.