An elderly pastor has described how he wrestled a gun away from his grandson after the troubled man allegedly gunned down his wife and four young children.

Brandon Allan Kendrick, 32, faces five counts of capital murder after the mass shooting  with a 9m pistol at his grandfather property in rural 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.

Kendrick allegedly gunned down his family at the garage apartment they lived in on Allan Kendrick’s property in West Blocton, about 40 miles south of Birmingham. 

The 71-year-old recounted the episode at the end of a lengthy sermon at Oasis of Praise Church in nearby Bessemer, where he is senior pastor, on Sunday.

Kendrick’s grandfather Allan Kendrick recounted the episode at the end of a lengthy sermon at Oasis of Praise Church in nearby Bessemer, where he is senior pastor, on Sunday

Allan also revealed to his congregation that Kendrick was ‘physically, sexually, and mentally’ abused until his grandparents got custody when he was 12.

Kendrick suffered from schizophrenia and his family explained to DailyMail.com how his mental state worsened in the weeks before the massacre. 

‘Kelse and her children have been victims of domestic violence for years,’ one family member said, claiming he had a history of not taking his medication.

Kendrick pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in Bibb County Courthouse on Monday. He will face court again on September 26.

Allan told his followers he was watching TV in the main house with his wife Gay Kendrick when they heard what sounded like a gunshot.

‘I didn’t have my shoes on so I’m putting my shoes on and he (Kendrick) walked in our bedroom with a gun in his hand,’ he said.

‘[Gay] was closest to him and she grabbed the gun, it went off – I don’t know how it kept from hitting her.’

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, on Thursday night

Kynli Kendrick, 2, Kaleb Kendrick, 6, Colton Daniels, 8, and Haley Daniels, 6, were found shot to death in rural Alabama on Thursday night

Allan then theatrically corrected himself to say that he did know how the bullet missed them – God intervened.

He revealed he was so concerned about Kendrick that he spoke to members of his congregation hours before the massacre.

‘Our prayer team that night, about an hour before this incident, stood right here and joined hands and prayed for mine and Gay’s safety,’ he said.

‘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 did not appear to have shared his concerns with authorities, and did not prevent Kelse and the four children from being around him that night.

The pastor explained his grandson’s actions came out of nowhere as minutes earlier he appeared happy and no threat to anyone.

‘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,’ he told the congregation.

Kendrick faces five counts of capital murder after the mass shooting

Allan was watching TV in the main house with his wife Gay Kendrick when he heard what sounded like a gunshot and went to investigate

‘We were talking about the J Alexander dinner we took him to [and] a few others things, just laughing, talking. 

‘His wife had gotten home, she came in, laughed with us a little while [and] left. He got up [and] 10 minutes later, pow!’

Allan detailed Kendrick’s history of abuse and mental illness, and how he had never even been to a restaurant before they took him to one for his 13th birthday. 

‘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,’ he said.

‘At 18, the system failed him, took him off of disability, took him off medication because we couldn’t afford to buy it, because they canceled his Medicaid. 

‘Gay and I watched him all these years, [we tried] so hard, talked to every agency, talked to everybody, we tried everything, had him institutionalized in hospitals – only to be discharged with no medication, no follow up, no doctor, nothing.’

Allan claimed his grandson considered his mental state to be such an emergency that hours before he shot his family, he called 911.

‘One o’clock on Thursday morning, he’s calling 911 asking for help – only to be turned down,’ he said.

The shooting took place at Allan’s property in rural Alabama, where Kendrick and his family lived in a garage apartment near the main house (Kaleb pictured with his sister and family dog on his first day of Pre-K)

Allan also revealed to his congregation that Kendrick was ‘physically, sexually, and mentally’ abused until his grandparents got custody when he was 12

Allan told Kelse’s grandfather Bill Morrow how he stumbled upon the crime and confronted his grandson, according to a conversation recounted to Daily Mail.com by Kelse’s uncle Eli Morrow.

‘Brandon came at him with the gun, and he fought it away from him. Then he walked over [to the house] and found out what happened. So they were as surprised as everyone else, they didn’t expect it,’ Eli said.

‘Brandon said, ‘Why did you beat me up?’ and Allan told him what he had done… and he just said, ‘Oh’.’

All five were found dead with gunshot wounds to their heads, other than Haley, who was still breathing and rushed to hospital, but did not survive.

Kaden was the last victim and shot outside the garage apartment, possibly while running for his life, which is how Allan heard the gunfire.

‘Allan said the door was knocked off its hinges, almost like she had locked him out and he broke the door down before shooting them. I’m assuming they were having some kind of argument,’ Eli said.

Kendrick playing on a small dirt bike with Kaleb in the yard of the rural property

Kynli and Kaleb were killed in the massacre on Thursday night

Allan used Sunday’s explanation of what happened to berate his congregation into ‘getting right with God’, because life was unpredictable.

‘Don’t you think, if you don’t have Jesus, that you gonna walk out of here and everything is going to be cool, ’cause you ain’t no match for the devil,’ he said.

He said maybe those listening weren’t mentally ill like Kendrick but they were not strong enough to resist the devil if he were to possess them.

‘Better get your heart right with God – because you may be the next one on national news,’ he said.

‘You don’t know if the person you’re with in an elevator, or you’ve got your back to in Walmart… who could have a psychotic failure at any moment and you never even hear the gunshot, or the knife stab… you don’t even know it til feel something sting. You better be ready, at all times.’

Allan asked if anyone had issues with mental illness or was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, PTSD, or ‘a high level’ of ADHD, and claimed ‘God can heal you, if you’ll let him’.

Kendrick and Kelse at their wedding on September 15, 2018

Kendrick allegedly shot Kelse and the children less than an hour after they returned home from Colton’s birthday party about 7pm after he demanded she come home

He then spoke more about Kendrick, alluding to him not doing what he was supposed to do to manage his illness.

‘You can rebel, you can have a granddaddy that can tell you every day what you need to do, give you scripture every day, pray over you every day, and you can continue to rebel until your life is gone… don’t ever tell me God didn’t give you a chance,’ he said.

Throughout the rest of the hour-long sermon, Allan appeared jovial and danced to Christian songs. He explained how he refused to change a single thing about Sunday’s service despite the family tragedy.

Allan called 911 about 8.18pm, and then got on the phone to Bill, Eli explained.

‘Bill, you need to get down here, Brandon has shot Kelse all the kids in the head,’ family said Allan told him.

Bill and his daughter Jessica, who is Colton and Haley’s mother, rushed to the property but found it cordoned off by police when they arrived about 9pm.

Haley and Kynli together at a family Fourth of July gathering two weeks before they were killed

Colton and Haley were only at the house because their mother was having major surgery the next morning

Eli’s wife Brittany Morrow explained that the massacre followed a last-minute decision by Kelse to give in to Kendrick’s demands one last time.

‘All of the children were supposed to spend the night at [Bill’s] home,’ Brittany told DailyMail.com.

‘Brandon repeatedly begged and pleaded with her to come home and she gave in… within an hour they were all shot in the head.’

Brittany explained that Colton and Haley’s mother Jessica Morrow, 35, was having major surgery the next morning, so there was no option but to send them with Kelse.

‘We live 45 minutes away. I wish to God they had asked us to take them for the night,’ she said.

‘What we are struggling with the most, is that it was a last-minute decision to take them over there, it was never in the plan because they knew he had been acting crazy.’

Kelse’s car was broken down so Jessica dropped all five of them off at home on Green Tree Drive about 7pm.

Kynli and Kaleb in Halloween costume in their Alabama town

Police swarm the scene late at night on Friday morning

Kelse is Eli’s niece by his older sister, who has since died, and Bill’s grandfather, and the Morrow and Kendrick families have been intertwined for generations.

Eli had custody of Colton and Haley from January 2021 until last November, when a judge allowed them to return to Jessica.

‘Jessica finally got her kids back, and then this happens,’ Brittany said.

‘I am devastated and destroyed… Eli and I had full custody of them for almost three years and they were my babies.’

Police rushed to the scene and arrested Kendrick after discovering the bodies, Bibb County Sheriff Jody Wade said.

‘It’s absolutely horrible. It’s unimaginable what the family is going through, what the friends of the family are experiencing, what the community is feeling right now,’ he said. 

‘It was just a horrific scene that even seasoned officers told me it is the worst thing they’ve ever seen.

‘As officers are going, they are saying there are more children that have been shot.’ 

Wade said Kendrick was yet to tell police why he did it, but ‘I don’t know what motive he could give us that would justify what he did anyway’. 

Kendrick was booked into the Bibb County Jail about 3.30am and denied bail.

He is charged with four counts of capital murder of a child under 14, and one count of capital murder in the killing of two or more people in one act.

Kelse’s uncle Eli Morrow had custody of Colton and Haley (front left and right) from January 2021 until last November, with the help of his wife Brittany (top right)

Colton and Haley with their uncle Eli Morrow

Oasis of Praise Church held a prayer vigil with more than 300 members last Friday night, saying proceeds from the collection plate would go to the families.

‘Pastor wanted us to relay to all those asking if they can do anything: ‘Tell everyone asking if they can do something that they can be at church Sunday at 10am’,’ the church wrote on its Facebook page.

‘The church has committed to helping the families with expenses. If you would like to be a part of this effort, please give your donation to the church’s benevolence fund. 

‘All donated money will be directed towards the needs of the families involved.’

Eli Morrow also started a GoFundMe page to help pay for the funerals, with his wife explaining the family didn’t want the funeral at Allan’s church.

‘None of the family feel comfortable having it there, he’s offered to have them cremated and have a memorial at his church, but the family has declined,’ Brittany said.

‘But we started the fundraiser because we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to pay for five funerals.’

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The three University of Alabama System campuses on Tuesday shuttered diversity, equity and inclusion offices— and opened new offices — to comply with a new Republican-backed law attempting to ban the programs on public college campuses in the state.

The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, along with the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, issued statements announcing the closure of diversity, equity and inclusion offices of each campus and the creation of a new university division or office. Each university said the change was made to comply with the new state law.

The Alabama law is part of a wave of proposals from Republican lawmakers across the country taking aim at diversity, equity and inclusion programs — also known as DEI — on college campuses.

The law, which takes effect Oct. 1, prohibits public universities, K-12 school systems and state agencies in Alabama from maintaining DEI offices. However, it’s unclear how much the law will impact the outreach and support functions previously performed by DEI offices.

The law defines DEI programs as classes, training, programs and events where attendance is based on a person’s race, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin or sexual orientation. Each university said the new offices will focus on student success.

“Our mission has not wavered, and we remain committed to our institutional goals to welcome all, serve all and see all thrive and succeed,” University of Alabama President Stuart R. Bell said in a statement to the campus.

The University of Alabama’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will close and a new Division of Opportunities, Connections and Success, has opened. The new division will be led by Christine Taylor, the university vice president and associate provost who had previously led the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on campus.

Similar DEI offices at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama in Huntsville closed. The new UAB Office of Access and Engagement will led by Vice President for Access and Engagement Paulette Dilworth, who had led diversity, equity and inclusion offices at the university.

“This is a new office with a new, exciting function, focusing on what we can do to promote success for everyone in the UAB community,” UAB President Ray L. Watts said in a statement.

Similar battles over DEI offices and diversity training programs have taken place in other GOP-dominated states. Republicans say the programs deepen divisions promote a particular political viewpoint. But opponents say it is a rollback of hard-won advances and programs that welcome underrepresented student populations.

“We are extremely disappointed to learn that the University of Alabama system is closing its diversity, equity, and inclusion offices just weeks before students are expected to return to campus,” JaTaune Bosby Gilchrist, the executive director of the ACLU of Alabama, said in a statement.

The organization said University of Alabama students had been among the most vocal opponents of the legislation.

Republican Sen. Will Barfoot, the sponsor of the legislation, did not immediately return an email seeking comment on the closures.

It’s been 50 years since Ronnie Van Zant first implored listeners to turn it up and sing songs about the Southland.

“Sweet Home Alabama,” which would certainly be the signature song of any band that didn’t already have “Freebird” in its catalog, was released June 24, 1974.  

Here are some interesting facts about the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic, which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard charts. 

Who wrote Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama?” 

The music was written by Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarists Ed King and Gary Rossington. Singer Ronnie Van Zant added the lyrics. In Marley Brant’s book “Freebirds,” King is quoted as saying the opening riff came to him in the middle of the night. “I woke up, wrote down the music, complete with all of the guitar parts, and then played it for Ronnie,” King says. 

Where was “Sweet Home Alabama” written? 

Gene Odom was a longtime friend of Van Zant and later and employee of the band (he was on the plane that crashed in 1977, killing Van Zant and five others). In his book “Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock,” Odom says the song was written at Hell House, a shack along Peters Creek near Green Cove Springs that the band used as a rehearsal space in its early years. Hell House no longer stands; the property is part of the Edgewater Landing housing development, but the Hell House lot was purchased by a nonprofit group and remains undeveloped. The Fender Stratocaster guitar that King used to write the song is now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Where did Lynyrd Skynyrd record the album version of “Sweet Home Alabama?” 

According to Odom’s book, the song was recorded at Studio One in Atlanta, just four days after it was written. The rest of the “Second Helping” album was recorded in Los Angeles. 

When was “Sweet Home Alabama” released as a single? 

The single, with “Take Your Time” on the B-side, was released on June 24, 1974. 

Was “Sweet Home Alabama” a gold record? 

The single was certified as either gold or platinum in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Brazil. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009. 

What Lynyrd Skynyrd album contained the original version of “Sweet Home Alabama?” 

“Sweet Home Alabama” is the first song on side one of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Second Helping” album. The album also included Skynyrd staples “Call Me the Breeze,” “Workin’ for MCA” and “The Ballad of Curtis Loew.” 

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What other official versions of “Sweet Home Alabama” has Lynyrd Skynyrd released? 

The song also appears on a bunch of Lynyrd Skynyrd live albums, including “One More From the Road” from 1976, “Southern by the Grace of God” from ‘87, “Lyve from Steeltown” from ‘97 and “Live from Freedom Hall” in ‘07. It can also be heard on “Pronounced ‘Leh-nerd Skin-nerd’ and ‘Second Helping’ Live from Jacksonville at the Florida Theatre” and “Last of the Street Survivors Lyve,” which was recorded at TIAA Bank Field in 2018. A reworked acoustic version of the song was released on the band’s studio album, “Endangered Species.” 

Has anyone released a cover version of “Sweet Home Alabama?” 

The song has been recorded by Jewel, Alabama, the Outlaws, Big Head Todd and the Monsters and the Leningrad Cowboys.  

How many times has Lynyrd Skynyrd publicly performed “Sweet Home Alabama?” 

According to setlist.fm, a website that tracks concert performances, Lynyrd Skynyrd has played “Sweet Home Alabama” 1,154 times in concert. The only song they’ve played more is “Freebird,” clocking in at 1,177 performances. 

Was Lynyrd Skynyrd from Alabama? 

No. Ed King was a California native but the rest of the original band members were from Jacksonville. 

Who are the Swampers? I hear they’ve been known to pick a song or two. 

Muscle Shoals, Ala., is known for its recording studios (Skynyrd recorded songs there before releasing their first album). The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was a group of studio musicians who were better known as the Swampers. They can be heard on recordings by Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Bob Seger, Wilson Pickett and others and are featured in the 2013 documentary “Muscle Shoals.” 

Is Alabama really “where the skies are so blue?” 

Alabama gets about 213 sunny days per year. That’s eight more than the national average. 

Who are the “boo, boo, boo” background singers on “Sweet Home Alabama?” 

Merry Clayton, Clydie King and Sherlie Matthews were brought into the studio to sweeten the vocals. Clayton can also be heard on the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” and was one of Ray Charles’ Raelettes; King also sings background on hits by Neil Diamond, Steely Dan and Bob Dylan. Matthew sang on many Motown hits, plus songs from Barbra Streisand, the Beach Boys and Lionel Richie.

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Why is Neil Young mentioned in “Sweet Home Alabama?” 

The song includes the line “I hope Neil Young will remember, a Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.” That was in response to a couple of Young’s songs, “Southern Man” and “Alabama,” that were critical of Southern culture. There was never a feud between the acts; Van Zant was frequently pictured in a Neil Young T-shirt and, in his autobiography, Young acknowledges that he deserved everything Skynyrd dished out. 

In Birmingham, do they love the governor? 

Perhaps, but they definitely love Skynyrd. “Sweet Home” was printed on the state’s license plates for several years, and the band has played more than 50 concerts in the state, including shows in Birmingham in 1973, ‘74, ‘87, ‘99, 2004 and 2009. 

Does “Sweet Home Alabama,” the Reese Witherspoon film from 2002, have anything to do with the song? 

The film is set in Alabama, but that’s the only connection other than a cover version of the song recorded by Jewel for the soundtrack. Skynyrd’s version of the song can also be heard on TV shows “Knight Rider,” “That ‘70s Show” and “Six Feet Under” and in the movies “Mask,” “Forrest Gump,” “Crimson Tide,” “To Die For,” “Con Air,” “Outside Providence,” “Joe Dirt,” “8 Mile” and “Sahara.”