Error and broken layout as soon as WPBakery Visual Composer is installed

Narrowed down the issue to happening as soon as I install WPBakery after activating the Child Theme. When you attempt to edit and update anything on a page it gives this error – no error if WPBakery is removed but then site layout is distorted.

Warning: preg_match_all(): Compilation failed: invalid range in character class at offset 11 in /home/brigmanp/public_html/wp-content/plugins/js_composer/include/autoload/hook-vc-grid.php on line 163

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/brigmanp/public_html/wp-content/plugins/js_composer/include/autoload/hook-vc-grid.php:163) in /home/brigmanp/public_html/wp-admin/post.php on line 231

Please help. I cannot use the theme that I purchased if I cannot get past initial installation and add the demo data.
Thanks!