Three thousand mourners have filled an event centre to capacity for the funeral of eight members of a family who were among the more than two dozen killed in a shooting at a small Texas church.
Families of the victims accompanied black and white hearses in limousines on Wednesday n Floresville, Texas, about 19km from the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, where the November 5 shooting occurred.
Fire marshals and sheriff's deputies shepherded hundreds more.
Church member John Holcombe, among the massacre's few survivors, invited the public to attend the funeral of his pregnant wife, Crystal, 36, and three of her children, Greg, 13, Emily, 11, and Megan, 9; his parents, 60-year-old Bryan and Karla Holcombe, 58; a brother, 36-year-old Marc Holcombe, and Marc's 18-month-old daughter, Noah. The dead will be buried privately on an unspecified date.
News reporters were barred from entering the event centre and were being held in a pen with two trucks obscuring the view inside.
The gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, began firing into the church as John Holcombe's father, Bryan Holcombe, an assistant pastor, ascended to the pulpit. Walking up and down the centre aisle, Kelley killed 25 people at the church, including crying babies at point-blank range, according to witness accounts. Authorities have put the official toll at 26, because Crystal Holcombe was pregnant.
Holcombe was managing the church's audio-visual operations at the back of the building and escaped with minor injuries. Crystal Holcombe's seven-year-old daughter Evelyn also escaped the barrage of gunfire. Her eldest child, 14-year-old Phillip, had stayed home from church services that day.
Kelley died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he fled in a vehicle. Authorities say Kelley was involved in a domestic dispute with his mother-in-law, a member of the church who wasn't present that day. However, among the victims was Lula White, the gunman's wife's 71-year-old grandmother.
In addition to those killed, another 20 people were injured in the shooting. Eight survivors remained hospitalised on Wednesday at two San Antonio-area hospitals, their condition ranging from good to critical.
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