The State of Texas: The first Sunday service after the shooting in Sutherland Springs

What Texas is talking about today No Images? [Click here]( [Visit Phoenix]( [Texas Monthly]( November 13, 2017 QUOTE OF THE DAY "I REALLY WARNED YALL I SWEAR, I was so close man." —Jalisa Washington [on Twitter](. Washington apparently tried to caution her fellow University of North Texas students that something was amiss at a homecoming party Sunday night. The floor of the third-floor apartment collapsed under the weight of the dancing, jumping homecoming revelers. Six people sustained minor injuries, and fifty people have been displaced from the student apartments. BIG NEWS One Week Later On November 5, service at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church were interrupted by a gunman, who shot and killed 26 people execution-style before fleeing and taking his own life. At Sunday's service, one week after the congregation was rocked by tragedy, [a record crowd was in attendance](. Pastor Frank Pomeroy—who lost his fourteen-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy, in the attack—announced last week that he would no longer be using the church building for worship services. Instead, Pomeroy led services at a baseball field, delivering what the New York Times describes as a sermon that "emphasized the power of light to triumph over darkness." Later Sunday, the church building opened up as a memorial to the victims. The walls and floor of the sanctuary had been painted white, and pews were removed, replaced by white folding chairs with a different victim's name painted in gold on each of them. A red rose—and a pink one for the unborn child who was killed—sat on the chairs. A line of community members and people from surrounding areas formed outside of the church, which was open to the public. “I want the world to know that that building will be open so that everybody who walks in there will know that the people who died there lived for the Lord and Savior and would want them to live for the same as well,” Pomeroy says. [Visit Phoenix]( TOP STORIES FROM TEXAS MONTHLY [The Best Thing in Texas: José Altuve's Letter to J.J. Watt]( by Dan Solomon A mashup of Houston sports icons to warm your heart. [Women in Law Enforcement Help Build Trust Within a Community]( by Charley Locke Sally Hernandez, Kim Ogg, and Catrina Shead speak about the importance of working together to protect a city’s most vulnerable residents. [Remembering Magnum P.I.'s John Hillerman, the World's Best Phony Englishman]( by Christopher Kelly How did the North Texas native convince a generation of TV fans that he was a dyed-in-the-wool Brit? MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS... A History of Abuse The first ex-wife of the Sutherland Springs shooter spoke out for the first time on Friday, detailing a history of abuse. Tessa Brennaman, who divorced Devin Kelley in 2012, [opened up to]( CBS News about her violent marriage to Kelley, including the incidents that led him to be court-martialed from the Air Force. Re-election Bid Governor Greg Abbott officially filed his candidacy for his second term of office on Veterans Day, the first day of the filing period. Speaking to a crowd of veterans at the American Legion-Charles Johnson House in Austin, he laid out a new set of policies supporting veterans, [according to]( the Dallas Morning News. Cold Case A seventy-year-old man was [arrested last week]( for the 1974 death of an Alice police officer, the Houston Chronicle reports. The suspect, who was identified Sunday as Roberto Lopez, has been a person of interest in the case since the beginning. He was arrested in Alabama and charged with capital murder for the December 1, 1974 shooting of Matthew Murphy. WHAT WE'RE READING Some links are paywalled or subscription-only. Self-driving trucks have been driving refrigerators from El Paso to Southern California since early October [Wired]( The Texas man who shared a viral photo of a Muslim woman ignoring the victims of a London terror attack was actually a Russian bot [Newsweek]( A San Antonio-based photojournalist will go on trial this week in a Trump inauguration riot case [Austin American-Statesman]( This is the closest we'll probably get to Pop 4 Prez [Texas Monthly]( Here's what chimps and other zoo animals in Dallas do for birth control [Dallas Morning News]( POLITICAL PLAY [If Mark Cuban Runs for President, Here's What He'll Do]( by Charley Locke The billionaire explains his campaign platform. If he runs, that is. [Visit Phoenix]( MORE FROM TEXAS MONTHLY [Don Meredith's Son on His Upcoming Documentary 'First Cowboys']( by Abby Johnston 'First Cowboys' tells the story of how the football team helped rebrand Dallas. [The Sermon on the Sunday After]( by Doyin Oyeniyi After the Sutherland Springs shooting, church leaders in Texas grapple with safety and encouragement. [The Texanist: When Will My Yankee In-Laws Stop Complaining About Our Spicy Food?]( by David Courtney A Tyler man is feeling a little hot under the collar. [Save up to 79% off cover price!]( Subscribe to Texas Monthly [SUBSCRIBE]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Website]( Texas Monthly PO Box 1569 Austin, TX 78767 Texas Monthly has sent you this alert because you signed up to receive it either online at texasmonthly.com, at the website of one of our business partners, or when you filled out a reader response card. You may cancel your subscription to this and other Texas Monthly newsletters at any time. 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