An Alabama pastor recalled the moments leading up to when he and his wife wrestled a gun from the hands of their grandson after he allegedly shot to death his wife, two of their children and a niece and nephew, according to a report.
The Rev. Allan Kendrick addressed the bloodshed in a sermon Sunday at Oasis of Praise church in McCalla, noting how just minutes before Brandon Allan Kendrick II, 32, allegedly carried out the carnage, he, his wife, Gay, and his grandson were laughing while reminiscing about old times.
"Ten minutes before I heard a gunshot, my grandson was sitting in my bedroom with me and Gay, laughing, talking. Talked about the first time we ever took him to a restaurant for his 13th birthday,'' the pastor said, according to Al.com. "He'd never been in a restaurant."
The shooting occurred Thursday at Kendrick's home; his grandson lived in a garage apartment with his family on the property.
As they were talking, Kendrick said his grandson's wife, Kelse, came home with the kids after being at a pool party.
"She came in, laughed with us a little while, left," the elder Kendrick said.
"He (Brandon) got up, 10 minutes later, 'Pow''' the pastor said, the outlet reported.
"I told Gay, 'That's a gunshot,''' Kendrick said. ''She said it was."
Seconds later Brandon Kendrick walked into the room, a gun in his hand.
Gay was closest to him.
"She grabbed the gun. It went off,'' the pastor said. "I don't know how it kept from hitting her."
"Yeah, yeah, I do know,'' Kendrick continued.
"Because our prayer time that night, about an hour before this incident, our prayer team stood here and joined hands and prayed for mine and Gay's safety,'' he said. "I had reached out to several of the church members, they were helping me trying to get some kind of help. So, they prayed for us."
Kendrick said he was able to "subdue" his grandson, who appeared to be unaware of what he had just done and didn't know where he was.
"He started asking me and Gay, 'Where am I at? Where's Kelse? Why are you angry? What'd I do wrong,''' Kendrick said.
Brandon Kendrick was arrested and charged with killing his 24-year-old wife, their two children - Kaleb, 6, and Kynli, 2 - and the couple's niece and nephew - Haley Daniels, 6, and Colton Daniels, 8.
Kendrick said his grandson has endured a childhood filled with abuse and has been taking various medications for years, blaming the system for failing him.
"When I got him at 12 years old, he weighed 58 pounds,'' the pastor said. "He was on nine different psychotic medicines."
When his grandson turned 18, he was removed from disability and his family could no longer afford his medications because the Medicaid was canceled.
"Gay and I watched him all these years try so hard,'' the pastor said. "We talked to every agency, we talked to everybody, we tried everything. We had him institutionalized in hospitals only to have him discharged with no medication, no follow up, no doctor."
