'Windows broke out. Shots were flying' - Survivors of the Texas church shooting describe what they saw
- Survivors of the Texas church massacre describe the mass chaos followed by targeted executions they witnessed as shooter Devin Patrick Kelley walked up and down the aisles looking for victims.
- "When the children cried next to their mothers, he would return to shoot them more," one witness said.
- The church pastor's 14-year-old daughter was killed after crying out for help.
Survivors of the shooting that killed 26 people and injured more than 20 in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Sunday say 'windows broke out,' 'shots were flying,' and that alleged shooter Devin Patrick Kelley walked between the pews to murder anyone making noise, especially targetting crying children, according to CNN.
Dan Brown, whose mother survived Sunday's shooting, described what she told him she saw at the start of the ordeal.
"Out of nowhere, shots started coming through the windows," he told CNN. "Windows broke out. Shots were flying."
Once Kelley entered the church, Roseanne Solis, who was sitting close to the doors, said everyone inside panicked.
"Everybody started screaming, yelling," Solis told KSAT, a CNN affiliate station. "Everybody got down, crawling under wherever they could hide. He was shooting hard. I could see the gunshots coming down."
Solis and her boyfriend, Jooaquin Ramirez, stayed safe throughout the shooting by huddling together under the pews, according to KSAT. Ramirez recalled making eye contact with the pastor's 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, and motioning to her to be quiet in order to avoid getting shot. His efforts were unsuccessful, and Kelley soon killed Pomeroy as well, according to CNN. After a lull in the gunfire, some churchgoers erroneously thought the police had arrived.
"Everybody was saying, 'Be quiet! it's him, it's him!'" Solis said.
She and others, including Brown's mother, watched as Kelley walked between the aisles.
"She stayed on the ground the whole time - never saw him, just saw his boots as he walked around the church," Brown said.
The lull quickly subsided however, and Solis told KSAT that Kelley began shooting again.
"Everybody is going to die motherf-----s," she recalled him shouting.
Kelley walked around looking for people he had missed, and according to Ramirez, he targeted children who were unable to hold back their tears.
'When the children cried next to their mothers, he would return to shoot them more," Ramirez told The New York Daily News. "He had more hatred toward the children because they cried."
Ramirez was able to crawl out of the church around Kelley and called 911 as Solis played dead, according to the Daily News. Meanwhile, Kelley entered the pew where Brown's mother was sitting, and "and started shooting the lady next to her multiple times," Brown told CNN.
However, Brown told CNN that at that point, another man entered the church with a gun, and Kelley took off after him, ending the 16-minute massacre.