Beverly Gumm and her daughter, Star Rutherford, were cooking lunch in the basement of Richmond Road Baptist Church, in the fellowship hall, Sunday afternoon when a man came through the back door and asked for one of Rutherford’s sisters.

They told the man she wasn’t there. He responded: “Well, someone is gonna have to die, then,” and opened fire, Rutherford told the Herald-Leader.

Gumm, 72, ducked and avoided the first shot, but the second hit her in the chest, killing her.

The man then went outside and shot and killed another of Rutherford’s sisters — Christina Combs, 32 — and injured two others: Gumm’s husband and the longtime pastor of the church, Jerry Gumm, and Combs’ husband, Randy Combs.

Rutherford and two of her other sisters, Dasey “Patches” Rutherford and Rachel Barnes, recounted the chaotic scene in an interview Sunday night with the Herald-Leader.

Guy House was the man who opened fire, they said. The sister he was looking for was the mother of his three children.

The church shooting, in the 5800 block of Old Richmond Road, happened soon after police said House shot and injured a Kentucky State Police trooper who tried to pull him over. House shot the trooper outside Blue Grass Airport, fled, carjacked a vehicle, and then drove to the church, police said.

Police eventually shot and killed House at the church.

Police have not identified House. The sisters said they knew him because of their other sister, whom the Herald-Leader is not identifying.

Star Rutherford said she held her mother as she lay dying. Gumm had eight children, she said, and was a “faithful member of the church who loved God.”

Gumm’s “love language” was feeding people — “homeless people, drug addicts, strangers” — said Patches Rutherford.

Barnes added that her mother and sister were doing what they loved, “serving the Lord,” when they died.

Barnes said Combs was a mother of five who planned to graduate from nursing school in December. She had a 6-month-old baby.

“They were both fantastic moms,” Barnes said.

The sisters said they don’t know a possible motive for House opening fire on the church.

Jerry Gumm and Randy Combs were in critical condition but stable Sunday night at the University of Kentucky hospital, Barnes said.

The state trooper shot at Blue Grass Airport was also stable Sunday.

©2025 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit at kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.