A Kentucky man looking for the mother of his children shot a state trooper, stole a car, drove to a small Baptist church, and opened fire on her relatives as they prepared lunch after the service on Sunday.
The suspect fatally shot the pastor’s wife and adult daughter—the sister of the woman he was looking for—in the church’s basement kitchen and injured the pastor and the woman’s brother-in-law outside before being killed by police, her sisters recounted in local news reports.
The incident took place in Lexington at Richmond Road Baptist Church, led by longtime pastor Jerry Gumm, who remains hospitalized. Gumm’s wife and mother of eight, Beverly Gumm, died on the scene along with her daughter Christina Combs.
“This church was a small church, and the majority of the individuals there are biologically related in some way or another. If not, they’ve been friends for many, many years,” said Fayette County coroner Gary Ginn. “They’re a very tight-knit group of people.”
The coroner’s office identified the suspect as 47-year-old Guy House. Police say he shot a Kentucky state trooper who tried to pull him over, then he fled the scene, carjacked a vehicle, and proceeded to the church. On Sunday, police indicated preliminary evidence pointed to a connection between the suspect and individuals at the church.
Officials have not identified a motive for the shooting, but Beverly Gumm’s daughter, Star Rutherford, said House came in the back door asking for one of her sisters.
When they told him the sister wasn’t there, he responded, “Well, someone is gonna have to die, then,” and shot at them, according to Rutherford’s account.
“Guy House wanted to hurt my sister or someone she loved,” Rutherford said in the Lexington Herald-Leader.
A county clerk stated that House, who had a criminal history involving theft and drug use, had been scheduled to appear in court for a domestic violence hearing on Monday but that the hearing did not involve the woman he was looking for at Richmond Road Baptist.
The shooting marks another deadly incident on church property—and another example of familial conflict spilling over into church life.
Around 14 percent of violent incidents involving deadly force at houses of worship stem from domestic conflicts, with the Faith Based Security Network tracking 269 such cases between 1999 and 2020.
“Year after year, domestic abuse spillover—when a fight at home comes to church—is one of the three most common killers at faith-based organizations,” the network’s founder and church security expert Carl Chinn said.
The other top causes for violence on church grounds are robbery and personal conflict; it’s much rarer for perpetrators to be religiously motivated. Most of the time (62%), deadly attacks occur during off-hours when no events are taking place, the network survey found.
Domestic violence also remains a key factor in gun deaths overall. Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund reports that nearly half (46%) of shootings killing four or more people involve a perpetrator going after an intimate partner or family member.
The 2017 attack at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas—which remains the deadliest shooting at a US house of worship—stemmed from the shooter targeting the small congregation where his estranged wife attended with her family. The shooter’s wife’s grandmother was among his 26 victims.
“In a smaller church, the boundaries between family and church are thin and blurry, so family problems spill over,” Texas pastor Bart Barber wrote for CT after the 2017 shooting. “Working on the front lines of these sensitive issues, churches can become targets when things go wrong.”
