Recovering church pastor opens up after deadly Lexington shooting

LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — The pastor at Richmond Road Baptist Church is speaking out after a shooting took two members of his church.

“I don’t want to lose anybody I love. I don’t want to leave the people that I love. But I know I’ve got to go someday,” Pastor Jerry Gumm said during his last sermon inside his small country church off Old Richmond Road on July 13.

What began as a typical Sunday service turned into tragedy when 47-year-old Guy House opened fire, shooting four people and killing Gumm’s wife and daughter, Beverly Gumm and Christina Combs.

The pastor has been in the hospital ever since, recovering from multiple gunshot wounds—and the unimaginable loss of his wife and daughter.

“He made himself a murderer, leaving this world. He murdered my wife, he murdered my daughter, and he tried to murder me, and he tried to murder my son-in-law,” Gumm said.

Since the attack, Gumm has undergone several surgeries, including one to attach nerve endings to lessen face drooping and improve his speech.

He also has a hearing device attached to his right ear to help him communicate.

“I kept saying … But I said, ‘I have to be dead through what I’ve been through; I gotta be dead.’ But thinking, ‘No, I’m not dead,'” he said.

House even shot Gumm in the tongue—saying he didn’t like what the pastor was preaching.

“Guess what? They found that booger and sewed it up. Well, here’s what they told me… If that tongue hadn’t caught that bullet, that bullet would have gone somewhere in my head, and it would have put the lights out,” Gumm said.

It’s a long road to healing, but Gumm said his faith remains strong—and he will return to the pulpit.

“I should go home, and whatever date that turns out to be, that week, I’m going to be back at church, and I already know what my complete sermon is going to be for that day,” he said.

The other two victims of the shooting are expected to be okay, with Gumm’s son-in-law already home from the hospital.