An Alabama pastor told his congregation about the moment he and his wife wrestled a gun from their grandson just moments after he allegedly gunned down his wife and four kids.
The Rev. Allan Kendrick told his parishioners during a Sunday sermon at Oasis of Praise Church in McCalla that he was so worried about the mental well-being of grandson Brandon Allan Kendrick II that he led a prayer meeting seeking safety “about an hour before” the bloodbath.
Despite those concerns, Kendrick and his wife, Gay, happily chatted with the disturbed relative — whom he said he had tried to help for years — just moments before the grandson shot dead his own wife as well as their two kids and a niece and nephew, the pastor said.
“Ten minutes before I heard a gunshot, my grandson was sitting in my bedroom with me and Gay, laughing, talking,” the pastor recounted of the horror late last Thursday, according to AL.com.
“We were laughing and talking … His wife had gotten home. She came in, laughed with us a little while, left,” he said.
“He (Brandon) got up, 10 minutes later, ‘Pow,’’’ Kendrick added.
“I told Gay, ‘That’s a gunshot,’’’ he said. ‘’She said it was.”
Brandon Kendrick then came back into his grandfather’s bedroom — and the pastor’s wife grabbed the gun, causing it to go off, he recalled.
“I don’t know how it kept from hitting her,” he said — before praising it on the prayers held an hour earlier.
The pastor said he then wrestled his grandson to the ground.
“He didn’t know where he was at. He started asking me and Gay, saying, ‘No, where am I at? Where’s Kelse? Poppy, why, why are you angry? What did I do wrong?’” Kendrick said.
Kendrick’s grandson was arrested on Thursday last week and charged with five counts of capital murder.
His wife, Kelse Kendrick, 24, their two children, Kaleb Kendrick, 6, and Kynli Kendrick, 2, as well as their niece and nephew, Haley Daniels, 6, and Colton Daniels, 8, were all killed.
The pastor blamed his grandson’s problems on him being abused as a child, as well as troubles with medicines he had long taken.
“We tried everything. Had him instituted in hospitals only to be discharged with no medication, no follow-up. No doctor, nothing,” Kendrick complained during his sermon.
Brandon Kendrick entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity or mental defect.
A GoFundMe for the family looking to cover the cost of all five funerals had raised over $31,000 by Wednesday, the day of the service.