An Alabama pastor told his congregation the moment he and his wife wrestled a gun back from his grandson moments after he allegedly shot and killed his wife and four children.
During his Sunday sermon at Oasis of Praise Church in Makara, Pastor Alan Kendrick told congregants he was so concerned about his grandson, Brandon Alan Kendrick II’s, mental state that he held a prayer vigil for his safety “about an hour before” the bloody incident.
Despite those concerns, Kendrick said he and his wife, Gay, were having a pleasant conversation with a mentally ill relative – someone Kendrick said he had been trying to help for years – when moments later his grandson shot and killed his wife, two children, and a nephew and niece.
“Ten minutes before we heard the shots, my grandson was sitting in the bedroom with me and Gay, laughing and talking,” the pastor said, recalling the terror late last Thursday. According to AL.com:.
“We were laughing and talking and his wife had come home. She came in and laughed with us for a while and then left,” he said.
“He (Brandon) stood up 10 minutes later, ‘Pfft,'” Kendrick added.
“I told Gaye, ‘That’s a gunshot,'” he said. “And she said yes.”
Brandon Kendrick then returned to his grandfather’s bedroom, where the pastor’s wife grabbed a gun, which then went off, he recalled.
“I don’t know why it didn’t hit her,” he said, praising the prayer that had taken place an hour earlier.
The pastor said he then pushed his grandson to the ground.
“He didn’t know where he was. He started asking me and Gay, ‘No, where am I? Where’s Kelce? Poppy, why, why are you mad? What did I do wrong?'” Kendrick said.
Kendrick’s grandson was arrested last Thursday and charged with five counts of murder.
His wife, Kelce Kendrick, 24, two children, Caleb Kendrick, 6, and Kinri Kendrick, 2, and two nieces and nephews, Haley Daniels, 6, and Colton Daniels, 8, all died.
The pastor claimed his grandson’s problems were due to abuse he suffered as a child and to medication he had been taking for many years.
“We tried everything. We admitted him to the hospital, they sent him out with no medication, no follow-up, no doctors, nothing,” Kendrick complained during the sermon.
Brandon Kendrick has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity or mental defect.
A GoFundMe for the family trying to cover the costs of five funerals had raised more than $31,000 by Wednesday, the day of the funeral.
