The man who authorities say fatally shot two people in a Kentucky church earlier in July was a repeat offender who could have been in jail if not for lenient sentencing, according to multiple reports and court records.
Police allege that 47-year-old Guy House shot and injured a state trooper near an airport on Sunday, July 13, carjacked a vehicle elsewhere and then opened fire at Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington, killing two people before police fatally shot him, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported. House had reportedly been convicted of multiple crimes that could have brought years in prison as recently as 2023, but was instead sentenced to a period of probation that he finished in January.
UPDATE – July 14, 2025: The suspect was identified by the Fayette County Coroner’s Office as Guy E. House, 47.
The two deceased female victims from Richmond Road Baptist Church have been identified as Beverly Gumm, 72 and Christina Combs, 34. https://t.co/lL7gEVTZir
— Lexington Police (@lexkypolice) July 14, 2025
Forty-two cases across four counties were linked to House, local media outlets reported, citing court documents. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to charges in multiple cases that included first-degree wanton endangerment and two counts of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon in Fayette County, where Lexington is located, according to Fox56. Those crimes alone could have resulted in a minimum of one year in prison each and put him behind bars at the time the July 13 shooting occurred.
The wanton endangerment and gun convictions in 2023 stemmed from an incident the year prior in which House ran from a police officer who stopped to question him on the side of the road near Tates Creek Centre in Lexington, Fox56 reported. House gave the officer a false name before running across traffic to escape, pointing a gun at the officer when he followed. House then evaded authorities for five months before they found him in the woods with a gun near an interstate, negotiating with him for hours until his arrest, WKYT reported.
Fayette County Circuit Judge Julie Goodman, who sentenced House in one of the 2023 cases for criminal mischief, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that prosecutors recommended probation for all of House’s crimes in the county and courts followed suit. House went on to violate his probation four times after the 2023 sentencing by repeatedly testing positive for drugs and being charged with a misdemeanor, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
“While he had what looked like a lengthy record … the majority were all misdemeanors,” Goodman said in a phone interview. The judge said House’s record up to that point was not one of “violent crimes.”
The suspect already had theft and robbery convictions from as early as 1999, the Lexington Herald-Leader and Spectrum News reported.
Goodman said that “judges play such a small role” in criminal cases compared to prosecutors who negotiate plea deals and recommend punishments to the court. Kentucky prosecutors even dismissed some charges against House, the judge told the DCNF.
“There was no reason not to follow the Commonwealth,” Goodman said. “Now … does this help me feel any better for what’s happened to these people? Does this make this tragedy any less? No, it’s a tragedy.”
Fayette County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kimberly Baird, a Democrat, took office in October 2022 and presided over House’s cases in the county when House was sentenced in 2023. Baird’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Guy House’s alleged July 13 crime spree began when a state trooper tried to pull his car over, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported. After allegedly shooting the officer, the suspect went looking for the mother of his own children at the church, ultimately fatally shooting her mother and sister and injuring two others. An emergency protective order was filed against House earlier in July, and he was scheduled to appear in court for a domestic violence hearing the day after the shootings, local news outlet WKYT reported.
“Today, violence invaded the Lord’s House,” Coleman said in a July 13 statement addressing the shootings at the church. “The attack on law enforcement and people of faith in Lexington shocked the entire Commonwealth.”
“We are grateful to the Kentucky State Police and Lexington Police Department, who courageously ran toward danger to protect this community,” Coleman said.
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