‘Be quiet! It’s him!’ Survivors say shooter walked pew by pew looking for people to shoot

The carnage started even before the gunman entered the church.

It was a gorgeous day in Sutherland Springs, and worshipers at First Baptist Church were singing the praises of Christ. Suddenly, the joyous prayers were drowned out by screams of terror.

“Out of nowhere, shots started coming through the windows,” said David Brown, whose mother was sitting in the back pew. “Windows broke out. Shots were flying.”

Investigators work at the scene of a mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday, November 5. A man opened fire inside the small community church, killing at least 26 people.

People comfort each other at a community center near the scene of the deadly shooting.

Investigators work at the scene. Victims range in age from 17 months to 77 years old.

Enrique and Gabby Garcia watch investigators at the scene.

Law enforcement officials gather near the First Baptist Church. The shooter was killed after a brief chase north into neighboring Guadalupe County, according Guadalupe County Sheriff's Office spokesman Robert Murphy.

A man wipes his eyes after the shooting.

Flags are lowered to half staff at First Baptist Church following the shooting.

Law enforcement officials and forensic experts gather at the scene.

Emergency personnel seal off the scene of the mass shooting.

Law enforcement officers man a barricade near the church.

Carrie Matula embraces a woman after the shooting. Matula said she heard the shooting from the gas station where she works across the street.

Law enforcement officials work the shooting scene.

A woman prays with a man after the shooting.

The FBI responded to the scene of the shooting, according to Michelle Lee, spokeswoman for the FBI's San Antonio field office.

"My heart is broken," said Wilson County Commissioner Albert Gamez Jr. "We never think where it can happen, and it does happen. It doesn't matter where you're at. In a small community, real quiet and everything, and look at this, what can happen."

Sutherland Springs church shooting

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The gunman started unloading his 450 rounds of ammo from outside, targeting the congregation of about 50 people.

Then came the killer – dressed in tactical gear and armed with an assault rifle as he stormed in through the front door of the small Texas church.

Video from inside the church showed that the gunfire lasted about seven minutes, said an official briefed on the case, according to The New York Times.

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Roseanne Solis was sitting near the entrance. She told CNN that the gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, “was looking all around and shooting at everybody – going through the rows, just shooting at everybody.”

“I didn’t even want to move. I know that was going to be my last day to live,” she said.

Solis dropped to the ground but was struck in the left arm, she told CNN affiliate KSAT. “I could feel the gunshots. I saw them on the carpet,” she said.

Brown said his mother recalled the gunman walking up and down the aisles several times.

“She stayed on the ground the whole time – never saw him, just saw his boots as he walked around the church,” Brown said.

Haley Krueger

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At one point, the shooting stopped. From the ground, Solis saw a man’s feet walk by and thought maybe the police had arrived.

But it was the killer, walking pew by pew, looking for more survivors to shoot.

“Everybody was saying, ‘Be quiet! it’s him, it’s him!’” Solis told the affiliate.

Not everyone could keep quiet. Young children in the church couldn’t stop crying, said Solis’ husband, Joaquin Ramirez. So Kelley found the children and shot them point-blank.

As the massacre continued, Ramirez made eye contact with Annabelle Pomeroy – the 14-year-old daughter of the church’s pastor. She was crying for help, Ramirez told KSAT.

Realizing Annabelle might get shot, Ramirez motioned with his finger for her to stay quiet. It didn’t work. Annabelle was killed.

Stephen Willeford, right, hugs Johnnie Langendorff during a vigil for the victims of the First Baptist Church shooting Monday, Nov. 6, 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Willeford shot suspect Devin Patrick Kelley and Langendorff drove the truck while they chased Kelley. Kelley opened fire inside the church in the small South Texas community on Sunday, killing more than two dozen and injuring others. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip

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The gunman eventually made his way to the back pew, where Brown’s mother was hiding, “and started shooting the lady next to her multiple times,” Brown said.

Brown’s mother was certain she would be next, “and her life was about to end.”

“Then somebody with a gun showed up at the front of the church (and) caught the shooter’s attention,” Brown said. “And he left, and that was the end of the ordeal.”

The Wilson County Sheriff’s Office arrived four minutes after the first 911 call, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

By the end of the massacre, 26 people were dead including an unborn child, authorities said. The fatalities included eight members of the same family and Kelley’s own grandmother-in-law.

Ramirez and Solis survived by playing dead.

CNN’s Sara Sidner contributed to this report.