Hey everyone, and welcome back to Big Mad True Crime, where we get Big Mad over True Crime.

I'm your host, Heather Ashley, and today you'll be hearing part two of the first Baptist

Church of Sutherland Springs mass shooting.

I do want to warn you guys, I am struggling with an illness right now, but this episode could

not be delayed.

And on that note, small talk

sucks, so let's dive in. Now, in part one, we talked about Sutherland Springs, a small Texas town where the first Baptist

church was the center of community life. On November 5th of 2017, around 50 people gathered there for Sunday service.

Within minutes, that service turned into the deadliest mass shooting in all of Texas history.

Armed with an AR-556 rifle in 15 magazines, a gunman stormed the church, firing 450 rounds, 26 lives were taken,

and 22 others were injured. Entire families were devastated. Survivors described the smoke

filling the sanctuary, the chaos of people hiding under pews, and the

unimaginable grief of finding loved ones shot beside them. Parents shielded children, grandparents held

on to grandchildren, and by the time the gunmen fled, the ripple effects had reached every

family in that congregation.

But who was this man who carried out such an attack? Well, it didn't take law enforcement

long to figure that out. Let's go back to when the gunmen fled the church. As it turns out, Stephen Wilford, who lived

nearby, heard the gunfire at the church. He grabbed his AR-15 because, of course, he had his own,

and sprinted outside barefoot, ready to confront the gunmen. He ran straight up to that church and yelled, hey, at the gunman.

This was enough to get the gunman's attention, and he stopped shooting inside the church and headed

out the front door. As he stepped out, a married couple watched from their window. They later

described the gunman to express news as methodical like a robot,

...