The gunman who killed 26 people at a small-town Texas church went aisle to aisle looking for victims and shot crying babies at point-blank range, a couple who survived the attack said.
Rosanne Solis and Joaquin Ramirez were sitting near the entrance to the First Baptist Church on Sunday when they heard what sounded like firecrackers and realised someone was shooting at the tiny wood-frame building.
In a television interview, Mrs Solis said congregants began screaming and dropped to the floor. She could see bullets flying into the carpet and fellow worshippers falling down, bloodied, after getting hit.
"Everybody die, [expletive]" Mrs Solis said the shooter screamed.
For a moment, the attacker seemed to stop, and worshippers thought that police had arrived to confront the gunman. But then he entered the church and resumed "shooting hard" at helpless families, she said.
The gunman checked each aisle for more victims, including babies who cried out amid the noise and smoke, Mr Ramirez said.
The couple survived by huddling close to the ground and playing dead. Solis was shot in the arm. Ramirez was hit by shrapnel.
"The lord saved me because I know it was my last day," Mrs Solis said.
About 20 other people were wounded. At least five were still hospitalised Tuesday.
The gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, had a history of domestic violence that spanned years before the attack and was able to buy weapons because the Air Force did not submit his criminal history to the FBI as required by military rules.
In the tiny town of Sutherland Springs, population 400, grieving townspeople reeled from their losses. The dead ranged from 18 months to 77 years old and included multiple members of some families.
"Our church was not comprised of members or parishioners. We were a very close family," said the pastor's wife Sherri Pomeroy, who, like her husband, was out of town when the attack happened. "Now most of our church family is gone."
The couple's 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, was among those killed.
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