SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Plans to demolish a small Texas church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshipers in 2017 drew crowds Tuesday as last-minute efforts were made to prevent the demolition.

The leadership of the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs has not yet announced a time for the demolition of the nave. Authorities put the death toll in the shooting at 26 people, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. It is the worst church shooting in U.S. history.

Inside the church, relatives of the victims and parishioners who may have attended the memorial for the last time sat on the floor in deep silence. Roses were laid in remembrance of the lives lost.

Roxanna Avants, 71, moved to Sutherland Springs after the shooting and said she is at the church to support those who lost loved ones in the shooting. Avants said even though people don't want to walk past a reminder of a tragedy, the church is still a house of God and a memorial to those who died in 2017.

On Tuesday, a Texas judge approved a temporary restraining order that some families had sought to delay demolition. The order, signed by Judge Jennifer Dillingham, requires the church not to begin demolition and to appear in court later this month.

But Sam Fugate II, an attorney for the families who sought the injunction, said the injunction had still not been served on the church as of Tuesday afternoon and expressed concern that demolition could proceed anyway.

Christine Earnhardt, a secretary at the church, said Tuesday she could not confirm whether demolition was planned and that the church did not intend to comment or make a statement.

After the shooting, the shrine was converted into a memorial. The interior was painted white and chairs with the names of those killed were placed there, the lawsuit says.

The church then voted to demolish the building in 2021, which opponents said went against the wishes of many surviving family members. About a year and a half after the shooting, a new church was completed for the congregation.

“We're not concerned with money. We're concerned with justice,” Fugate said. “We want our clients to voice their opinion on whether the church should run and vote again.”

Amber Holder, a church member and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said she wanted to make sure shooting survivors and victims' families were allowed to vote. “The families of so many victims have been told, 'You can't vote because you're not a member here anymore,'” Holder said.

Holder said she was not at church on the day of the shooting but arrived shortly afterward. As a teenager, she was taken in by the family of the then-pastor, whose 14-year-old daughter Annabelle Pomeroy was among those killed.

Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, said that as news of the impending demolition spread in the community of fewer than 1,000 residents, people she spoke to were “devastated.” Smith said a woman who was like a daughter to her – Joann Ward – and her two daughters, ages 7 and 5, were among those killed in the shooting.

Smith, who is not a member of the church, said she visits the memorial often. “The way it is now, it's just beautiful,” she said.

“You feel the comfort of all who were lost there,” Smith said.

Communities across the U.S. have grappled with the question of what to do with the sites of mass shootings. Last month, demolition began on the three-story building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. It was torn down and replaced after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, and the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, site of racist mass shootings, have both reopened. In Colorado, Columbine High School still stands – although its library, where most of the victims were killed, has been replaced.

In Texas, authorities closed Robb Elementary School in Uvalde after the shooting there in 2022 and plan to demolish it.

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Stengle contributed to this report from Dallas. Associated Press reporter Paul J. Weber contributed to this report from Austin.