Mia Williams
A pastor has recalled the moment he says he heard his grandson shooting down his wife, his two children and two other young children in his family home.
Brandon Allan Kendrick, 32, is facing five counts of murder and is accused of going on a murderous rampage, shooting a 9m pistol in his grandfather's family home in Alabama.
His wife Kelse Kendrick, 24, was found dead alongside their son Kaleb, six, and Kynli, two, and their cousins Colton, eight, and Haley Daniels, six, last Thursday night.
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The pastor, Brandon's 71-year-old grandfather, was watching TV in the house with his wife Gay Kendrick, when the couple heard what sounded like a gunshot.
Allan recounted the traumatic episode at the end of a lengthy sermon at Oasis of Praise Church in Bessemer.
He said: "I didn't have my shoes on so I'm putting my shoes on and he [Brandon] walked in our bedroom with a gun in his hand.
"[Gay] was closest to him and she grabbed the gun, it went off - I don't know how it kept from hitting her.
"Anyway, I was able to subdue him, and once that happened he didn't know where he was at, he started asking me and Gay, 'Where am I? Where's Kelse? Poppy, why are you angry? What did I do wrong?'"
Allan noted that Brandon had been 'physically, sexually, and mentally' abused until his grandparents took custody of him when he was 12.
He also suffered from schizophrenia, a condition which his family said had been worsening just weeks before the shooting.
Brandon pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in Bibb County Courthouse on July 22, and he will face court again on September 26.
Allan was open with his congregation about the moments he spent with his grandson prior to the attack.
He said: "Ten minutes before I heard a gunshot, my grandson was sitting in his bedroom with me and Gay... laughing, talking, and having a pretty good time.
"His wife had gotten home, she came in, laughed with us a little while [and] left.
"He got up [and] 10 minutes later, pow!"
He detailed his grandson's complex history with abuse and mental illness, and said: "All he'd ever known for 12 years was abuse - physical, sexual, mental, drugs.
"When I got him at 12 years old he weighed 58lbs [and] he was on nine different psychotic medicines."
Kelse's aunty, Brittany Morrow, explained that the shooting was as a result of a last-minute decision by Kelse to give in to Brandon's demands.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, she said: "All of the children were supposed to spend the night at [Kelse's grandfather's] home.
"Brandon repeatedly begged and pleaded with her to come home and she gave in… within an hour they were all shot in the head."
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for the funerals.