On September 15, 1999, a mass shooting occurred at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

47-year-old Larry Gene Ashbrook entered during a See You at the Pole Rally featuring a concert by the Christian rock group Forty Days, where he killed seven people and wounded seven others before committing suicide.

Prior to the shooting, he had displayed behavior considered erratic and frightening by those around him, and had mailed multiple letters to a local newspaper proclaiming he was being framed for murder and being watched by intelligence agencies.

Ashbrook arrived at the Wedgwood Baptist Church wearing mirrored sunglasses and a pullover.

[1] He interrupted a teen prayer rally, slamming his hand on a door to make his presence known.

[3] During the shooting, Ashbrook was confronted by a 19-year-old former football lineman, Jeremiah "Jeremy" Neitz, who recounted the ensuing conversation for the Houston Press:[4] I don't know why, but I just sat there, looking at him as he came toward me.

[1] Time magazine described accounts of the confrontation as "unconfirmed" and possibly "pious invention",[9] but the Houston Press wrote that the story had been confirmed, quoting the Fort Worth police detective who had interviewed Neitz: "Maybe he did frustrate Ashbrook with what he was saying.

Newspaper editor Stephen Kaye, whom Ashbrook had visited days before the shooting, described him as being "the opposite of someone you'd be concerned about", saying he "couldn't have been any nicer."

In the months before the shooting, people who knew Ashbrook said he became increasingly paranoid, certain that he was being framed for serial murder and other crimes that he did not commit.

He also feared that the CIA was targeting him, and he reported psychological warfare, assaults by co-workers and being drugged by the police.

"[11][12] According to those who knew Ashbrook when he was a child, the shooter "resented being made to attend church three times a week" and journals left behind at his house contained anti-religious material.

[3][16][17] President Clinton stated after the shooting "Yet again, we have seen a sanctuary violated by gun violence, taking children brimming with faith and promise and hope before their time."

George W. Bush, then presidential candidate and governor of Texas, cancelled two fundraisers and returned to the state.

[2][18] A Sunday service was held just four days after the shooting, as the lead pastor of the church, Al Meredith, said they did not wish to "give an inch to the darkness."

During his sermon at the service, he said that "this tragedy that the devil wanted to use to stop the people of God has ended up strengthening us", and that the shooting had united the church.