Women killed in KY church shooting were mother and daughter, died ‘serving the Lord’
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Fatal shooting at Lexington, KY church
Two people were killed and three others, including a Kentucky State trooper, were injured July 13, 2025 in a pair of shootings involving one suspect at Blue Grass Airport and a church in Lexington.
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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, 34 — 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 Rachael Barnes, recounted the chaotic scene in an interview Sunday night with the Herald-Leader.
The man who opened fire on the church was Guy House, 47. The sisters said he was looking for the mother of his three children — another of their sisters, whom the Herald-Leader is not identifying.
The church shooting, in the 5800 block of Old Richmond Road, happened soon after 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.
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.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Christina Combs’ age.
This story was originally published July 13, 2025 at 9:05 PM with the headline "Women killed in KY church shooting were mother and daughter, died ‘serving the Lord’."
