‘We are heartbroken,’ family says after men killed in Fort Worth-area shooting identified
Family members described the two victims killed by a gunman inside a White Settlement church as selfless men who served God and put others first.
“Tony” Wallace, 64, and Richard White, 67, were identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety on Monday afternoon as the victims of Sunday’s shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ.
The gunman was fatally shot by a member of the church’s security team.
Tony Wallace, a deacon at the church, was a father, grandfather and husband. He lived in Fort Worth and worked as a nurse at THR Harris Methodist Hemodialysis Unit, according to his Facebook.
“He was truly the most Amazing man,” Lindsey Wallace, Tony Wallace’s niece, said in a message to the Star-Telegram. “As you see he was murdered serving God yesterday which is what he’s done all his life.”
He was also the brother of former Kansas City sports anchor Al Wallace, according to a Facebook post from Wallace, who worked at the Fox affiliate WDAF Channel 4.
“Our entire family is in shock and grieving, especially for his wife Julie, his two daughters Sarah and Tiffany, their families, and certainly his grandkids,” Al Wallace posted on Facebook. Wallace gave the Star-Telegram permission to share his post.
He wrote that his brother was “the kindest man” he had ever known, “with not a mean bone in his body.”
“And he was like that, even as a kid,” he wrote. “Born just two years apart, we grew up as best friends. As children, we did everything together. We played rocks, we had those plastic army men, we played baseball and football. Growing up in a family with 8 children in the 50’s and 60’s, for years, we even shared a bed together. Quite often, the back of the station wagon was our playground.”
Al Wallace said it was not surprising his brother became a nurse because he always helped people, whether it was by buying his little sister her first bike or allowing his brother to join his business ventures, such as tie-dying shirts or mowing lawns.
On the post, Al Wallace shared a text from his brother that he received last week.
“’My two grandsons have certainly been a source of joy for me. In some ways, I have been a surrogate father to them,’” Al Wallace quoted his brother as writing. “’I’ve taught them how to play baseball, how to drive, and have done summer camp with them for several years, and it certainly has brought us closer together.’”
Al Wallace wrote he and his family have received an outpouring of sympathy and understanding after his brother’s death, and they all “already miss him very, very much.”
Lindsey Wallace described her uncle as a second father and someone who “didn’t cuss, he didn’t really raise his voice, he always tried to be the calm solver.”
“You see it on the news and on TV and it hurts everytime a little more to know the evil in our world,” Lindsey Wallace wrote. “But for it to hit home . . . it truly rocked our families worlds yesterday. It really is unreal and devastating.”
Eagle Scout ‘stood up against evil’
White, of River Oaks, was a volunteer on the church’s security team. His Facebook says he worked at Tank Heads Inc., a manufacturing and fabrication company that creates and delivers tank heads.
Misty York White posted publicly on her Facebook about White’s death, saying White was her father-in-law.
“Yesterday our minds and hearts were reeling from another senseless tragedy. As we sit and watch information continue to unfold about the attack, we are stunned, confused and pained. The death, the police, the news media make this feel like a war zone,” she wrote. “You were taken from us yesterday in a senseless act of violence. You stood up against evil and sacrificed your life. Many lives were saved because of your actions. You have always been a hero to us but the whole world is seeing you as a hero now. We love you, we miss you, we are heartbroken....”
White had three children and seven grandchildren, and is survived by his wife, two brothers and parents, according to a statement from the family posted on Facebook. He was an Eagle Scout, loved adventure and the outdoors and was “a strong man of faith.”
“Rich constantly put others first and was always willing to help with a smile on his face,” White wrote.
The gunman was identified by DPS as Keith Kinnunen, 43, from River Oaks.
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 3:08 PM.
