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A Small Texas Town Mourns An Enormous Loss, In Photos

Sutherland Springs is tight-knit community of fewer than 1,000 people. On Sunday, its residents came together to confront their devastating loss.
Laura Skelding AP
Sutherland Springs is tight-knit community of fewer than 1,000 people. On Sunday, its residents came together to confront their devastating loss.

Sutherland Springs is a small South Texas town, about 45 minutes southeast of San Antonio. On Sunday morning, some of its residents went to services at the First Baptist Church downtown.

Then a gunman shattered the calm of the morning. Devin Patrick Kelley, a 26-year-old from New Braunfels, a city 35 miles north, arrived dressed in black, wearing body armor and firing an assault-style rifle. He shot at the church building itself. And then he went inside and fired on the worshippers. He killed at least 26 people and wounded some 20 others.

As evening fell, residents gathered at the Sutherland Springs Post Office on U.S. Highway 87 to light candles, grieve, remember those who were lost and to pray for the survivors.

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