Alabama pastor whose grandson charged in death of wife, 4 children recounts moments after shootings

An Alabama pastor whose grandson is accused in the horrific killings of his wife and four children chronicled what happened in the immediate moments before and after the deadly shootings.

The Rev. Allan Kendrick, who along with his wife Gay leads Oasis of Praise church in McCalla, addressed the quintuple homicide during his sermon Sunday.

Kendrick’s grandson, 32-year-old Brandon Allan Kendrick II, is charged with five counts of capital murder. The charges are four counts of capital murder of a child under the age of 14, and one count of capital murder in the slayings of two or more people in one act.

Killed were Brandon Kendrick’s wife of six years, 24-year-old Kelse Kendrick, and their two children Kaleb Kendrick, 6 and Kynli Kendrick, 2. The couple’s niece and nephew, Haley Daniels, 6, and Colton Daniels, who would have turned 9 on Tuesday, were also killed.

A GoFundMe has been launched to help the family pay for the estimated $50,000 in burial costs.

“I’ve had a few people call (and say), ‘Pastor, you can’t preach Sunday. You can’t get up and preach Sunday with what you’ve been through and what’s going on with you. It’s going to be too hard,’’' Pastor Kendrick told the congregation.

“No, when heard this, ‘I will look into the hills from which cometh my help,’’' he said. “My help cometh from the Lord.”

“What I’m doing right now, I’ll get criticized for,’’ he said. “I’m supposed to be mourning. I’m supposed to be grieving. I’m supposed to be incapable of doing anything. I should be at home with my blinds pulled.”

The shooting happened at the home of Pastor Kendrick. His grandson and family lived in the garage apartment on the West Blocton property.

The large, close-knit family earlier that day had gathered at the home of Bill Morrow, Kelse Kendrick’s grandfather, for a pool party to celebrate Colton.

Brandon Kendrick did not attend Colton’s party.

Young victims — Kynli Kendrick, 2, (not pictured) Kaleb Kendrick, 6, Colton Daniels, 8, and Haley Daniels, 6, were shot to death Thursday, July 18, just hours after Colton's birthday pool party.GoFundMe

The plan, said cousin Shannon McCoy, was for Kelse Kendrick and all four children to spend the night at Morrow’s home after the party. Haley and Colton’s mother, Jessica Morrow, had surgery planned for the following day and Kelse Kendrick was keeping the children since Jessica Morrow – her aunt – had to be at the hospital early Friday morning.

Brandon Kendrick repeatedly called his wife, telling her to come home.

Ultimately, McCoy said, Kelse Kendrick agreed to return home. Jessica Morrow took Kelse Kendrick and the four children back to the garage apartment.

Pastor Kendrick talked in church Sunday about what happened next.

“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,’’ Pastor Kendrick said. “He’d never been in a restaurant.”

“All he’d ever known for 12 years was abuse - physical, sexual, mental, drug.”

“When I got him at 12 years old, he weighed 58 pounds,’’ Pastor Kendrick said. “He was on nine different psychotic medicines.”

The pastor went on to say that the system failed his grandson. When Brandon Kendrick turned 18, Pastor Kendrick said, they took him off disability and took him off medication because the family couldn’t afford to buy it since his 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.”

Kelse Kendrick and her young son and daughter were among five people killed in Bibb County on July 18, 2024. Kelse's husband, Brandon Kendrick, is charged with capital murder.(Special to AL.com)

Pastor Kendrick said in the predawn hours of that Thursday, Brandon Kendrick had called 911 asking for help, “only to be turned down,’’ he said.

“In the bedroom with me and Gay, we talked about the J. Alexanders lunch we took him to and a few other things. We were laughing and talking,’’ the pastor said. “His wife had gotten home. She came in, laughed with us a little while, left.”

“He (Brandon) got up, 10 minutes later, ‘Pow’’' Pastor Kendrick said.

“I told Gay, ‘That’s a gunshot,’’' he said. ‘’She said it was.”

Moments later, Brandon Kendrick walked into the bedroom with a gun in his hand. Gay Kendrick was closest to him.

“She grabbed the gun. It went off,’’ Pastor Kendrick said. “I don’t know how it kept from hitting her.”

“Yeah, yeah I do know,’’ he said. “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.”

“I was able to subdue him,’’ Pastor Kendrick said of his grandson. “And once that happened, he didn’t know where he was at.’’

“He started asking me and Gay, ‘Where am I at? Where’s Kelse? Why are you angry? What’d I do wrong,’’' he said.

“Ten minutes before that he’s laughing, talking and having a pretty good time,’’ Pastor Kendrick said. “Don’t you think that if you don’t have Jesus, you’re going to walk out of here and everything’s going to be cool because you ain’t no match for the devil.”

“Do you think you’re strong enough to resist the devil if he were to possess you?” he said. “You better get your heart right with God, because you may be the next one on national news.”