Texas Church Shooting Followed ‘Domestic Situation’ With Gunman
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/texas-church-shooting-domestic-violence_us_5a0095f7e4b04cdbeb351cd0?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
The
gunman accused of committing the deadliest mass shooting in modern
Texas history sent threatening texts to his mother-in-law before
targeting the church where she sometimes worshiped, authorities said on Monday.
Devin Kelley, 26, opened fire on the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs on Sunday, killing 26 people and wounded 20 others. He was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“It’s
a senseless crime, but we can tell you that there was a domestic
situation going on within this family,” said Freeman Martin, the
regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. “He had
expressed anger toward his mother-in-law.”
As information has emerged about Kelley’s background, he appears to share a common trait with http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mass-killers-domestic-violence_us_58dabce9e4b054637062b231?bpv25sjhj3ui8uxr" rel="nofollow - many American mass shooters : a history of domestic violence.
In
2012, Kelley, who served at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, was
court-martialed for assault on his spouse and assault on a child. “He
assaulted his stepson severely enough that he fractured his skull, and
he also assaulted his wife,” Don Christensen, a former chief prosecutor
for the Air Force, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/us/devin-patrick-kelley-texas.html?emc=edit_ta_20171106&nl=top-stories&nlid=65690372&ref=cta" rel="nofollow - told the New York Times . “He pled to intentionally doing it.”
That
year, his then-wife filed for divorce, according to court records. He
was sentenced to 12 months behind bars, and received a bad conduct
discharge. In 2014 he was remarried, according to the Times.
His
conviction should have barred him from legally purchasing firearms,
according to military law experts who spoke with HuffPost. Under the
Lautenberg amendment, individuals who are convicted of a domestic
violence misdemeanor are prohibited from owning or buying guns.
------------- “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.” Gary Kasparov
|