Yahoo News Pregnant mother-of-five killed in Texas church shooting alongside seven members of her family
A pregnant mother-of-five was killed in the Texas church shooting alongside seven members of her family.
Crystal Holcombe, 36, was one of the 26 people killed by a gunman at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs on Sunday.
Her daughters Emily and Megan and son Greg were also killed in the shooting.
Her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Karla, 58, and Bryan Holcombe, 60, were also shot dead. Their son, 36-year-old Marc Daniel Holcombe – Crystal’s brother-in-law – was also killed along with his 18-month-old daughter Noah.
She was the youngest victim of the mass shooting.
Associate Pastor Bryan Holcombe was leading the service in place of Pastor Frank Pomeroy, who was out of town on Sunday.
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Crystal’s husband, John Holcombe, 39, survived the shooting along with their daughter, Evelyn. They were treated in hospital but have since been released. Their other child, Philip, was not at the church on Sunday.
A GoFundMe page set up by Crystal’s friend, Brooke Morales, has raised more than $37,000 for the family.
Crystal’s five children were from her first marriage to Peter Hill, who died aged 30 in 2011 from a heart attack.
Crystal’s cousin, Nick Uhlig, told the Houston Chronicle: ‘She doesn’t even drink, smoke or nothing.
‘She just takes care of kids, she raises goats and makes homemade cheese. That kind of thing.
‘They don’t go out dancing or anything like that. They’re real old-fashioned, down-to-earth.’
Julius Kepper, who lives close to the church, told the Associated Press: ‘She was starting her life all over again. That’s a crying shame.’
Crystal’s aunt, Michele Hill, told the AP that her husband John suffered shrapnel wounds in the shooting and her daughter Evelyn was grazed by bullets, but both were discharged from hospital on Monday.
Ms Hill said Crystal was due to give birth in early April.
‘They had actually just found out,’ she said. ‘They didn’t think it was possible so this was just a miracle baby.’
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, was able to buy weapons because the US Air Force, where he served, failed to report his previous conviction for domestic violence.
Kelley was found guilty of assault in an Air Force court-martial in 2012 for abusing his wife and her child and was given 12 months’ confinement followed by a bad-conduct discharge in 2014.
That same year, authorities said, he bought the first of four weapons.
Under Pentagon rules, information about convictions of military personnel for crimes like assault should be submitted to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Investigation Services Division.
