Lexington pastor who survived shooting that killed his wife, daughter is back home
A Lexington pastor who lost his wife and daughter in a church shooting is back home after being hospitalized for more than a month with injuries sustained in the attack.
Pastor Jerry Gumm returned home Friday, his daughter said in a post on the church’s Facebook page.
He had been cared for at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital, she said in an earlier post.
Gumm was shot July 13 in the parking lot of Richmond Road Baptist Church when Guy House opened fire, killing Gumm’s wife, Beverly Gumm, 72, and daughter Christina Combs, 34.
Combs’ husband, Randy Combs, was seriously wounded. Combs’ family said in an update July 29 that he was back home with his children, though he was still recovering and “deeply feels the absence of his other half.”
House had already shot and injured a Kentucky State Police trooper during a traffic stop near Blue Grass Airport and hijacked a car before arriving at the church in rural Fayette County that Sunday.
House, who had gone to the church looking for the mother of his children, died after being shot by officers with the Lexington Police Department outside the church.
Gumm, 81, told WKYT on Friday that he was sitting in his power chair when House began firing at him, “taunting me, cursing me, laughing at me.” His tongue was struck by one of the bullets.
“The doctor said if that tongue hadn’t caught that bullet, it would have gone in my head and it would have killed me,” he told the television station. “God and those miracle workers gave me my tongue back.”
Gumm, who said he is grieving his wife and daughter, intends to be back at church this Sunday and to preach his first sermon since the attack next Sunday, WKYT reported.
