Pastor reflects year after wife, daughter murdered at church in shocking attack
A year after his wife and daughter were fatally shot inside his church and he survived being shot multiple times, Jerry Gumm, the 82-year-old pastor of Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, remains adamant that the tragedy will not stop him from praising the Lord.
"I would not let that monster change my life [or] what I do. Now, he has changed my life: what I don't have. What he's done to us — that has changed us, that's for sure. But I'm not letting him stop me from serving the Lord," Gumm, who has been leading his church for nearly 55 years, told Lex18.
On July 13, 2025, 47-year-old Guy House, who also took his own life, fatally shot Gumm’s wife, Beverly Gumm, 72, and one of their daughters, Christina Combs, 32, during a shooting rampage at the church. House, who also shot Combs’ husband, Randy Combs, during the rampage, was a rapper known as HonKy Kong. Family and friends believe he had a mental breakdown because he was not allowed to see his daughter.
House reportedly went into the church looking for the mother of his child, who was not in the church at the time. He reacted by killing Beverly Gumm, his daughter’s grandmother, and Christina Combs, his daughter’s aunt.
In an interview with WKYT, House's ex-girlfriend said that he had become suicidal and threatened her life in the days leading up to the shooting. She said she reached out to local police and filed an emergency protective order against House, which was never served.
Despite professing his commitment to his faith in God, Pastor Gumm says he's not forgotten the horror of the fateful day of the shooting.
"As I was telling the church yesterday, I was laying in the mud over there, my tongue was split in two. The bullet had cut it from front to back. The police told me I was laying in the mud, my tongue was hanging out of my mouth in two pieces. If it hadn't been for my tongue catching it, that bullet would've gone up and I would've been gone," Gumm told Lex18.
The pastor said he later found out that the bullets used by House during the shooting were “homemade shrapnel bullets.”
His faith also doesn’t stop him from missing his wife and daughter.
“I miss them terribly,” he said. “They were both just about round-the-clock workers, they never quit. ... Life was beautiful with them. And they're not here now. That's the worst thing I had to come to.”
He said after the shooting, some members left the church, but others have been faithful and have been helping him rebuild.
"I've had so many blessings. I couldn't be bitter if I wanted to be," the Kentucky pastor told Lex18. “We're not done. Not about to be done. When they carry me out feet first, I'll be done. But my prayer is they're gonna continue on when I'm gone."
Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
