A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the federal government was mostly responsible for Texas' deadliest mass shooting at a Sutherland Springs church in 2017, concluding that the U.S. government failed to submit information that could have prevented the gunman from purchasing the assault rifle he used to gun down 26 people.
On Nov. 5, 2017, Devin Kelley, 26, opened fire during a Sunday service at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs outside of San Antonio, using a Model 8500 Ruger AR-556, fitted with a 30-round magazine, that he purchased from Academy Sports + Outdoors the previous year. Kelley later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after two men chased him as he fled the scene, according to The Dallas Morning News.
He formerly served in the U.S. Air Force at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. In 2012, Kelley was convicted of assaulting his wife and stepson, and in 2014, he was released from the U.S. Air Force on a bad conduct discharge. According to the decision by federal Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the Western District of Texas, Kelley’s likely target was his mother-in-law, Michelle Shields, who was a member of First Baptist Church but wasn’t in the church at the time.
