{"id":257,"date":"2025-07-15T13:49:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inhishands\/?p=257"},"modified":"2025-07-15T13:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T17:49:06","slug":"community-mourns-mother-and-daughter-killed-at-church-shooting-in-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inhishands\/2025\/07\/community-mourns-mother-and-daughter-killed-at-church-shooting-in-kentucky\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Mourns Mother and Daughter Killed at Church Shooting in Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Beverly Gumm \/ Facebook | Inset: Chaim Gleitmann \/ Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A woman and her daughter were killed when a gunman entered their church and began shooting. Beverly Gumm, 72, and her daughter, Star Rutherford, 32, were preparing the lunch at Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington, KY when 40-year-old Guy House entered the church fellowship hall to look for one of Star\u2019s sisters, who is the mother of his three children. When they informed House she wasn\u2019t there, the gunman cryptically responded<\/a>, \u201cWell, someone is gonna have to die, then,\u201d and then opened fire. The first shot missed Gumm, but the second hit her in the chest. After running outside, he killed Rutherford\u2019s sister, Christina Combs, 34, and shot and injured both Combs\u2019s husband, Randy, as well as Gumm\u2019s husband, Jerry. Jerry Gumm is also the pastor of the church.<\/p>\n

Prior to arriving at the church, House had also shot a Kentucky State Police trooper who tried to pull him over outside Blue Grass Airport. After shooting the trooper, House highjacked a car and drove over to the church, where he continued his shooting rampage. Police were able to track House to the church, where they shot and killed him. \u201cThe suspect was shot by responding law enforcement and was pronounced deceased at the scene. Three Lexington police officers fired their service weapons in accordance with the Lexington Police Department’s policies,\u201d stated Lexington Police Department Chief Lawrence Weathers. Rutherford shared that she held her mother while she was dying. Gumm\u2019s and Combs\u2019s husbands, as well as the state trooper, were in the hospital but reported to be in stable condition.<\/p>\n

Gumm had eight children and was described as a \u201cfaithful member of the church who loved God.\u201d Combs was a mother of five with a six-month-old baby. She had plans to graduate from nursing school in December. The family stated that Combs and Gumm were doing what they loved by \u201cserving the Lord.\u201d \u201cThey were both fantastic moms,\u201d said Rachael Barnes, another of Combs\u2019s sisters. The family could not think of a motive for the shooting, although a local outlet<\/a> reported that he had been scheduled for a domestic violence hearing on Monday and had a lengthy criminal history and had been released on probation in January. Rutherford stated the domestic hearing was not related to her sister, however. \u201cGuy House wanted to hurt my sister or someone she loved.\u201d The identity of the sister House was looking for has not been released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A woman and her daughter were killed when a gunman entered their church and began shooting. Beverly Gumm, 72, and her daughter, Star Rutherford, 32, were preparing the lunch at Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington, KY when 40-year-old Guy House entered the church fellowship hall to look for one of Star\u2019s sisters, who is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCommunity Mourns Mother and Daughter Killed at Church Shooting in Kentucky<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A gunman opened fire at a church, killing a pastor's wife and daughter. The family says they died doing what they loved\u2014serving the Lord.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inhishands\/2025\/07\/community-mourns-mother-and-daughter-killed-at-church-shooting-in-kentucky\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Community Mourns Mother and Daughter Killed at Church Shooting in Kentucky\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A gunman opened fire at a church, killing a pastor's wife and daughter. The family says they died doing what they loved\u2014serving the Lord.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inhishands\/2025\/07\/community-mourns-mother-and-daughter-killed-at-church-shooting-in-kentucky\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"In His Hands\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-15T17:49:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/457\/2025\/07\/Church-Shooting_credit-Beverly-Gumm-Facebook-Inset-Chaim-Gleitmann-Facebook.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Community Mourns Mother and Daughter Killed at Church Shooting in Kentucky","description":"A gunman opened fire at a church, killing a pastor's wife and daughter. 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