Article:

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 Learn more about Subscriber Plus. ||||| CLOSE Sherri Pomeroy, wife of Sutherland Spring's Pastor Frank Pomeroy, shared the memory of their 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle, who died in the mass shooting in their family church that left 26 dead, many of them children. USA TODAY 
  
 A Michigan couple killed in the Texas church shooting lived with heartache. A year earlier, they held a funeral in the same church they died in, for their son 
  
 Robert and Shani Corrigan, one-time high school sweethearts who grew up in the northern Michigan town of Harrison, were among the 26 victims killed on Sunday, Nov. 5,2017 in the mass Texas church shooting. (Photo: Family photo) 
  
 For Robert and Shani Corrigan, a pair of high school sweethearts from northern Michigan who moved to a tiny Texas town years ago for a new life, the last year was one of unfathomable heartache. 
  
 They lost their 25-year-old son Forrest Corrigan Nov. 26, 2016, to suicide. His memorial service was held at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church in Texas. 
  
 On Sunday, nearly a year later, the Corrigans were gunned down in that same church, victims of a mass shooting that claimed the lives of 26 people and shattered the small Texas town amid a wave of escalating gun violence in America. The dead ranged from a toddler to a 72-year-old. 
  
 More on the Texas church shooting: 
  
 Texas shooter allowed to buy weapons after Air Force failed to flag him 
  
 A last peaceful Sunday before a congregation is consumed by violence 
  
 Among them were the Corrigans, described by the folks who knew them as good family people who worked hard and made everyone around them feel special. And music, many said, was a Corrigan passion. 
  
 "Robert always loved music. I remember him always playing and he was very good at it," said Patty Root, 52, of Harrison, who grew up down the road from Corrigan and remembers him as the perfect gentleman. 
  
 "(He) was always a gentleman — never judging who you were or where you came from. He treated everyone equally," Root said. "We will miss him. And everyone needs to know what a fine man he grew up to be. He did not come from a rich family — just a family that loved to help others." 
  
 The Corrigans graduated from Harrison High School in 1985. Robert Corrigan held the 2-mile track record there for 25 years. 
  
 After high school graduation, Robert Corrigan joined the Air Force and married Shani, his high school sweetheart. They raised a family of three sons, including Forrest, who was born in Oscoda in 1990 and moved to Texas in 2009; and Preston and Benjamin Corrigan, who are now in active duty military. It is not clear when exactly they moved to Texas. 
  
 FBI agents search for clues at the entrance to the First Baptist Church, after a mass shooting that killed 26 people in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Nov. 6, 2017. (Photo: MARK RALSTON, AFP/Getty Images) 
  
 News of their death quickly spread on social media, where friends expressed their grief and anger by the attack. Their friends in northern Michigan took the news especially hard. 
  
 "Things like this aren't supposed to happen to us," said Mike Coon, 50, a retired police officer who grew up with Bog Corrigan in Harrison and graduated with him and his wife. "They were trying to deal with the loss of a child, which occurred months ago. Now this? I can't imagine how their other two children are having to deal (with this.)" 
  
 Coon, who lives in Farwell, just outside Harrison, described the Corrigans as "very wonderful people" who would help and "give to anyone." 
  
 "Bob was very outgoing and full of life -- never wanted to see anyone not smiling. And if you weren't -- he made sure you were," Coon said. 
  
 Family friendRon Patti Richards took to Facebook to express her condolences, calling the Corrigans "two of the nicest people you will ever meet, and very fun to be around. Rest in peace my friends." 
  
 David Roll described Bob Corrigan as a "good friend and fellow Airman" and said he hoped he and his wife are "hopefully back together" with their son. 
  
 "Bob loved playing guitar for the church music ministry more than anything else — and was likely doing that when him and Shani were killed," Roll wrote on Facebook. "I feel blessed to have known them both." 
  
 Meanwhile, a memorial vigil was to be held Monday evening at Veterans Freedom Park in Harrison. 
  
 “This is a huge tragedy, not only for the family, for this small town,” said Renee Haley, director of Veterans Services for Clare County. 
  
 Police have identified the shooter as Devin Kelley, 26, of nearby Comal County, Texas, who entered the church late Sunday morning dressed in black tactical gear, walked down the church’s center aisle and opened fire with an assault rifle. He was found fatally shot a short time later in a neighboring Texas county after being pursued by a Good Samaritan. 
  
 Police say they believe the incident involved a domestic situation within his family, and noted it was not racially motivated or over religious beliefs. 
  
 According to Air Force officials, Kelley was court-martialed in 2012 for assaulting his spouse and their child, receiving a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force and 12 months of confinement. 
  
 Free Press staff writer Ann Zaniewski and USA Today contributed to this report. 
  
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What is a summary?
– On Nov. 26 of last year, Robert and Shani Corrigan lost their 25-year-old son to suicide. They held his memorial service at Sutherland Springs' First Baptist Church in Texas, where the Michigan couple had moved years prior to start a new life. Less than a year after his death, they were killed at the same church during Sunday's shooting rampage, the Detroit Free Press reports. "They were trying to deal with the loss of a child, which occurred months ago. Now this? I can't imagine how their other two children are having to deal," said one childhood friend of the couple, who were high school sweethearts. "Things like this aren't supposed to happen." Another friend wrote on Facebook that at least the Corrigans are "hopefully back together" with their son now. "Bob loved playing guitar for the church music ministry more than anything else—and was likely doing that when him and Shani were killed," the friend added. Robert Corrigan had retired from the Air Force a few years ago, reports the Omaha World-Herald; he had also been the music minister at the couple's church in Nebraska when they lived there. He was known for playing the guitar and writing his own music, and his wife sang: "Anything she sang, she sang well," the reverend of their Nebraska church recalls. The couple leaves behind two other sons, who are both in the military.