Pastor Frank Pomeroy and his wife, Sherri, took the podium Monday morning to respond to the mass shooting at their church in southeast Texas during the service on Sunday, Nov. 6. They lost their 14-year-old daughter that day.
On Wednesday, Nov. 8, Associate Pastor Kevin Cornelius from First
Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, TX and Pastor Mark Collins (who
used to be pastor at the church) reached out to Oath Keepers and asked
us to provide security for the church grounds, for the church service on
Sunday, 11/12/2017, and to also provide security for some of the
funerals for those killed in Sunday’s mass shooting. In response, Oath
Keepers has been on the ground at the church since Thursday, November 9
and we are already bringing in some of our most experienced police and
military veterans.
Help us provide security for the First Baptist Church of Sutherland
Springs, TX and their community while they heal and recover from the horrendous mass shooting that
took the lives of 26 people on Sunday, Nov. 5, and help us train church
security teams in the area so they are better prepared to prevent
and/or stop such acts of evil in the future.
Skilled Volunteers Needed:
We need skilled, trained, and experienced police and military veteran volunteers to assist us in providing security for the church and for the community as they grieve and recover.
You can volunteer by emailing us at: tx@oathkeepers.org.
You can also call:
Scott Dunn at 850-209-6348
or
Ivan Chiplinsky at 702-810-4066
If you cannot make it yourself, please donate to support those who can. We need to pay for the travel expenses of bringing in our best men. Please help support this mission:
DONATE HERE
Team leaders on the ground are:1. Brian Krogmann (Army Ranger veteran and retired Washington D.C. Metro police officer who helped take down the Washington Navy Yard shooter in 2013).
2. Scott Dunn (Ranger School grad, police veteran, and retired trauma nurse).
3. Army Ranger veteran Ivan Chiplinsky (who was deployed to Haiti for six months while in service).
They need help. We want only “quiet professionals” who are well trained and experienced current serving or prior police and military with appropriate backgrounds to help preserve the dignity and privacy of the church, the survivors, and the families of those killed as they grieve, recover, heal, and rebuild. We are now responsible for the security of the church grounds (both inside and outside the fence), and we will be assisting with the security of future church services and as security escorts for survivors and the family of the deceased as they attend services. We will also be available to provide security for funerals upon request of the families.
We have pledged to help the church with future security planning as they rebuild, and while on this mission, we will also be doing free security assessments for other churches in the area and throughout South Texas, and we will begin the process of training up church security teams. We are doing all of this for free, as volunteers, under our oath obligations and as part of our Community Preparedness Team (CPT) program.
Volunteers should expect to be heavily vetted and be prepared to undergo a background check. We prefer Oath Keepers members, but highly qualified non-members may also volunteer. This will be an armed detail, but it will be low profile and concealed carry. We do have long guns (since the best response to a terrorist rifle threat is a rifle in the hands of the good guys, as Steven Willeford showed last Sunday), but they too will remain concealed. Clothing will be solid colors only. Oath Keepers shirts and hats are encouraged to help assist with identification of our volunteers.
Please note that Oath Keepers DID NOT reach out to the church or the pastors. They contacted us. Pastor Mark Collins (who used to pastor at the church) is assisting Pastors Pomeroy and Cornelius in dealing with this tragedy. Pastor Collins has known me (Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes) for years and has worked with us in the past. Both of us were in the documentary “Revelation: Dawn of Global Government” and we have spoken at the same patriotic gatherings around the nation for years. Pastor Collins knows us, knows our past work, and trusts us to do this right, and that is why we were contacted to help. We are honored to help in any way we can.
Pastor Collins, who is best known nationwide for playing George Washington, is a great American patriot pastor and friend of Oath Keepers. The other pastors are also fantastic men who deserve our support and assistance.
Pastor Collins on the news regarding the mass shooting:
While providing security for the church and the families, we are
working alongside the Texas Highway Patrol, Wilson County Sheriff’s
Office, Baptist Child and Family Services (BCFS) (who are in overall
command of the scene), BioTech and the Red Cross. This is a very
important mission. Yes, we do wish that the church had had an
effective armed security team in place, with an effective security plan
(as we have been calling for in all churches across America), but we
must now help them heal and rebuild. And we hope we can also be part
of helping prevent this from happening again to this church or to others
in South Texas (and nationwide). Our mobile training team will begin
in this area and will spread out from there.
Please say a prayer for the Sutherland Springs community as they grieve, heal, and rebuild. And please say a prayer for our volunteers as they do all they can to help in that process.
For the Republic,
Stewart Rhodes
Founder of Oath Keepers
Photo: Two of Our Oath Keepers Team Leaders on Ground in Sutherland Springs, TX – Scott Dunn and Ivan Chiplinsky.
PS – Here is an interview with good Samaritan, Stephen Willeford, on how he stopped the killing:
We only wish he, or someone like him, had been in the church parking lot
when the killer first arrived, rather than having to run there after
the attack had already started. And that is why we strongly advocate
that churches have an exterior security team, armed with rifles
(concealed in their vehicle as they stand next to it), as well as
concealed handguns on their person, so they can decisively stop such an
attack at the outset. We will train them to do just that (along with
having a team on the inside, as well as attendees carrying concealed).
See our recommendations for church security here and here.
Pastor Collins as George Washington:
