Pastor delivers powerful sermon on how he wrestled gun away from grandson after horrific murders of wife, 4 children

An Alabama pastor delivered a powerful sermon detailing how he wrestled a gun away from his grandson. The struggle over the gun happened just moments after the tragic murders of a woman and four children.

Brandon Allan Kendrick II was arrested last week and charged with 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, according to AL.com.

'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.'

Kendrick, 32, is accused of shooting to death Kelse Kendrick — his 24-year-old wife of six years. Kendrick also is accused of murdering the couple's two children: 6-year-old Kaleb Kendrick and 2-year-old Kynli Kendrick. Also murdered in the bloodbath were the couple’s niece and nephew: Haley Daniels, 6, and Colton Daniels, who would have turned 9 on Tuesday.

Kendrick's grandfather, Rev. Allan Kendrick, described the events leading up to and after the horrific quintuple homicide during his sermon Sunday at the Oasis of Praise church in McCalla.

Kendrick said that 10 minutes before the unimaginable shootings, his grandson was "laughing, talking" in a bedroom with him and his wife Gay.

"We talked about the first time we ever took him to a restaurant for his 13th birthday. He'd never been in a restaurant," Pastor Kendrick recalled.

"All he'd ever known for 12 years was abuse — physical, sexual, mental, drug," Kendrick said of his grandson. "When I got him at 12 years old, he weighed 58 pounds. He was on nine different psychotic medicines."

The pastor said that the system had failed Brandon once he turned 18 years old because his disability and Medicaid were canceled. The family couldn't afford his medication.

"Gay and I watched him all these years try so hard," Kendrick 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."

Kendrick said Brandon called 911 around 1 a.m. on the day of the murders, but he was "turned down."

Kendrick said Kelse Kendrick came home and also was in the bedroom with the family and was in good spirits that day.

“[Brandon] got up, 10 minutes later, ‘Pow,’’' Pastor Kendrick told his congregation just days after five members of his family were slain in his home.

Kendrick continued, "I told Gay, 'That’s a gunshot.' She said it was."

Moments later, Brandon walked into the bedroom with a gun in his hand and Gay was in close proximity to him.

"She grabbed the gun. It went off. I don’t know how it kept from hitting her," Kendrick said before crediting the prayers from an hour earlier.

"Yeah, yeah, I do know. Because our prayer time that night, about an hour before this incident, our prayer team stood here and joined hands and prayed for [my] 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 wrestled his armed grandson to the floor.

“I was able to subdue him. And once that happened, he didn’t know where he was at," he noted.

The pastor said, "He didn’t know where he was at. He started asking me and Gay, saying, 'No, where am I at? Where’s Kelse? Poppy, why, why are you angry? What did I do wrong?'"

Kendrick remembered, "Ten minutes before that he’s laughing, talking and having a pretty good time. 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."

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

Kendrick also addressed concerns that he shouldn't deliver a sermon just days after his family's ghastly tragedy.

"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,'" he recounted to his congregation.

He added, "What I’m doing right now, I’ll get criticized for. 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."

But Kendrick declared, "No, when heard this, 'I will look into the hills from which cometh my help.' My help cometh from the Lord."

A GoFundMe has been launched to help pay for the estimated $50,000 in funeral costs for the five slain family members. At the time of publication, the crowdsourcing campaign had raised over $31,000.

You can watch Kendrick tell his tragic story to his congregation here.

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