Man shot and killed in Fort Worth-area church was ‘one of a kind,’ family members say
Anton “Tony” Wallace was giving out communion Sunday morning at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement when his daughter noticed an unknown man approach her father.
Within seconds, the man pulled out a weapon and started firing.
“The guy just stood up from the pew, turned toward my dad and I guess he shot at the security guard,” Tiffany Wallace told KXAS-TV.
Tiffany Wallace also realized her father had been shot.
“I ran toward my dad and the last thing I remember is him asking for oxygen and I was just holding him, telling him I loved him and that he was going to make it,” she said.
Tony Wallace was rushed to a local Fort Worth hospital, but he died.
“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.”
Tony Wallace was a nurse manager at THR Harris Methodist Hemodialysis Unit, according to his Facebook. Lindsey Wallace said her uncle was a great nurse who was loved and respected by his colleagues.
Lindsey Wallace said her uncle was like a father to her. He was there for her growing up because her father was in and out of prison, she said, and he treated her like a daughter. He would pick her up on weekends and take her to church with the rest of the family.
Tony Wallace was a structured man, encouraging his two daughters and other family members to keep the house clean, fold their clothes “the right way,” and say a prayer before every meal.
The Wallace family is a “huge sports family,” Lindsey Wallace said. Her son and Tiffany Wallace’s son are the same age, and Tony Wallace would go to the boys’ games in Brewer.
Tony Wallace was raised in Mineral Wells and taught to be in church every Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday night, and that’s what he did.
“He was one of a kind,” Lindsey Wallace said.
“He loved me, he protected me, he included me, he treated me as I was his own, he was always there,” she said. “He was an amazing man of God and servant and he died serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
The shooting
A livestream video of the church service captured the shooting Sunday morning.
The gunman was being watched by members of the church security team because of his appearance, said Mike Tinius, a church elder. Tinius would not elaborate what it was about the gunman’s appearance that attracted the attention of the church security personnel.
“By the sequence of events it should be assumed that he came in with an idea,” Tinius said.
The gunfire came without warning, said Tinius, who was at the church when the shooting took place. He had never seen the gunman before and could not think of a motive, Tinius said.
Isabel Arreola, 38, said the gunman sat two feet behind her and her 7-year-old daughter.
His beard and the hair on his head looked fake, and he made her uncomfortable, Arreola said. She noticed him from the moment that he sat down, Arreola said.
Arreola said she could tell that one of the members of the security team was concerned about the shooter because he sat in the back right near him.
“They saved us,” Arreola said. “Unfortunately, two men lost their lives while they were doing so.”
Tiffany Wallace talked to KXAS-TV Sunday hours after the shooting, saying her father was a deacon and lifelong member of West Freeway Church of Christ.
Tiffany Wallace said her 64-year-old father loved his family.
“He was amazing,” his daughter said. “He was a godly person and even when we talked about going to heaven he always said, “I’m always prepared’.”
Tiffany Wallace said she never thought her dad would be shot in church.
She still can not believe someone would walk into a church and start shooting.
“How can someone so evil, the devil, step into the church and do this,” she told KXAS-TV.
But the 32-year-old was willing to forgive the gunman.
“I forgive him(gunman) and that’s the hardest thing to say,” Tiffany Wallace said.
Tiffany Wallace thanked the armed church member who serves as a security guard at the church for stopping the gunman.
“He is a hero to me,” she said.
She believes her father is in a wonderful, peaceful place.
“You don’t think it’s going to hit home,” his daughter said. “And the fact that it hit our home and someone that supports us and loves us and is our dad(is gone), that’s what hurts the most.”
This report contains information from Star-Telegram archives.
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 7:07 AM.
