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[webfact]

Texas church gunman escaped mental facility in 2012 - police report

By Jon Herskovitz and Lisa Maria Garza

 

A woman prays after the shooting. Nick Wagner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN via REUTERS

 

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (Reuters) - The man who carried out one of the deadliest U.S. mass shootings escaped from a mental health facility in 2012, the same year he was convicted by a U.S. Air Force court-martial of domestic abuse, according to a police report.

 

Devin Kelley, who massacred 26 people at a church in rural southeastern Texas on Sunday, was convicted of assaulting his first wife and stepson while serving in the U.S. Air Force in 2012, according to the Pentagon.

 

That same year he briefly escaped from a mental health facility in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, according to an El Paso, Texas, police report.

 

The person who reported Kelley's escape warned police that he could be a danger to himself and others and had been caught sneaking weapons into Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, where he had been stationed, according to the police report.

 

He had attempted to "carry out death threats that (Kelley) had made on his military chain of command," the report stated.

 

Police found Kelley in El Paso and turned him over to New Mexico police to return him to the facility, according to the police report.

 

The attack at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, ranks as the fifth deadliest by a single gunman in U.S. history.

 

The dead ranged in age from 18 months to 77 years and including the unborn child of a pregnant woman who was killed. Twenty others were wounded, with 10 still in critical condition on Tuesday, officials said.

 

Kelley died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his getaway vehicle, where authorities found two handguns, said Freeman Martin, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

 

Kelley was also wounded by a resident of the town of about 400 people who heard the gunshot, grabbed his rifle and raced to the church, shooting the 26-year-old twice as he fled.

 

DOMESTIC DISPUTE

 

Kelley was involved in a domestic dispute with the parents of his second wife, whom he married in 2014, authorities said, and had sent threatening text messages to his mother-in-law before the shooting.

 

"We have some indication of what the conflict was between the family," Martin told a Tuesday press conference.

Although Kelley's in-laws occasionally attended services at First Baptist, they were not there on Sunday.

 

Kelley's cell phone has been sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's crime lab at Quantico, Virginia.

Specialists have been unable to get into the device to see if it holds details on the cause of his attack, said Christopher Combs, the FBI's special agent in charge in San Antonio.

 

The Air Force said it had failed to transmit information about Kelley's conviction into the National Criminal Information Center system, a federal database used by gun dealers to check prospective buyers for criminal backgrounds.

 

The Republican chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee called the failure to enter Kelley's record "appalling."

 

"The failure to properly report domestic violence convictions may be a systemic issue," Representative Mac Thornberry of Texas said in a statement.

 

The Air Force opened an inquiry into how it handled the former airman's criminal record, and the U.S. Defense Department has requested a review by its inspector general to ensure other cases have been reported correctly, Pentagon officials said.

 

Firearms experts said the case involving Kelley, who spent a year in military detention before his bad-conduct discharge from the Air Force in 2014, has exposed a previously unnoticed weak link in the system of background checks.

 

It is illegal under federal law to sell a gun to someone who has been convicted of a crime involving domestic violence against a spouse or child.

 

The massacre stirred an ongoing debate over gun ownership, which is protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Guns are part of the fabric of life in rural areas.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters he believed stricter reviews of gun purchases would not have stopped Sunday's massacre.

 

"There would have been no difference," Trump said during a visit to South Korea. He added that stricter gun laws might have prevented the man who shot Kelley from acting as he did. "You would have had hundreds more dead."

 

(Additional reporting by Andrew Hay in New York, Patricia Zengerle in Washington and Idrees Ali traveling with U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis; Writing by Scott Malone and Steve Gorman; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Lisa Shumaker and Paul Tait)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-11-07

[lopburi3]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

"There would have been no difference," Trump said during a visit to South Korea. He added that stricter gun laws might have prevented the man who shot Kelley from acting as he did. "You would have had hundreds more dead."

A year ago such a statement from on high would have been, at least almost, unbelievable.  

[DM07]

Oooooh, that's alright, then!'

Give him a gun- an assault riffle...why not a nuke?!

[mike324]

Trump rolled back the law where Obama put in place that made people with mental illness not able to purchase a gun. Go figure why....

[farcanell]

55 minutes ago, mike324 said:

Trump rolled back the law where Obama put in place that made people with mental illness not able to purchase a gun. Go figure why....

Mmm... so mentally ill people would vote for him?

 

????

[Jonmarleesco]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Firearms experts said the case involving Kelley, who spent a year in military detention before his bad-conduct discharge from the Air Force in 2014, has exposed a previously unnoticed weak link in the system of background checks.

Only one? There are substantially more weak links than one in the system.

[dunroaming]

So he was able to buy hardware in Colorado and Texas with nothing being flagged up?  This would be shocking news except with the mindset in the USA it isn't.  Just another "shrug your shoulders" moment in the land of the dinosaurs.

[buick]

in america, you can make contact with someone selling a gun over the internet.  then meet them in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant to pay and take delivery of the gun.  you might not be able to get it same day, but next day for sure.  the seller will even set you up with some ammo to get you started.

[JemJem]

Hmmmm. It is great that he is dead. If he had been captured alive, MAYBE, he would have been spared a tough sentence, due to mental illness.

 

[Grouse]

Gross negligence. Just highlights how irresponsible the Americans have become

[Stargeezr]

The mentality that guns do not kill people, is part of what is wrong with America. Guns are only bought by people. It is easy to buy  a gun in America, all you need is money. I am Canadian and I went into a gun shop and bought a 22 calibre rifle. I did have the Canadian FAC at the time and it was good enough for the shop owner, as he made a photo copy and took my money. Easy Peasy.    I  doubt any thing has changed except for me getting the rifle into Canada.

Geezer

[radiochaser]

On 11/8/2017 at 7:13 AM, buick said:

in america, you can make contact with someone selling a gun over the internet.  then meet them in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant to pay and take delivery of the gun.  you might not be able to get it same day, but next day for sure.  the seller will even set you up with some ammo to get you started.

I tried that a few years ago, when I was looking to purchase a pistol, in the state that I now live in.  Other than gun auction websites, that are the equivalent of ebay, I could only find 4 people locally that was selling the pistol I wanted.  I wanted to find out if the, it's easy to buy guns off the internet,  claim was true.

All four sellers required the sale be made at a local gun store, where a NICS background check had to be done, before the sale would be completed.  

Even after I showed my Federal Agent badge and credentials, the seller insisted that the sale be made at a gun store with a NICS background check.  I asked people at two shooting clubs if anyone had a gun for sale and got no offers or referrals.  

How ever, in California, it was easy to find people that would sell a firearm to most anyone with the money to purchase one.  I only had to ask someone standing around on a street corner if they knew anyone that was selling a pistol.   Most sellers had criminal backgrounds that prohibited them from possessing, much less selling a firearm.  Apparently they did not care that it was a violation of both state and federal law.   The BATF arrested the sellers shortly after the purchase was completed.  

[radiochaser]

What I don't see mentioned in any of the comments about this murderer.  

The Air Force, failed to notify the proper government authorities that he had been convicted of domestic violence by courts-martial, and that he was involuntarily committed to a mental health care facility.  

Both of those are required to be reported.  Both of those would have flagged him as not eligible for legal purchase of a firearm.  

Remember , a legal gun owner prevented him from killing more people too!

 

[buick]

7 hours ago, radiochaser said:

How ever, in California, it was easy to find people that would sell a firearm to most anyone with the money to purchase one.  I only had to ask someone standing around on a street corner if they knew anyone that was selling a pistol.   Most sellers had criminal backgrounds that prohibited them from possessing, much less selling a firearm.  Apparently they did not care that it was a violation of both state and federal law.   The BATF arrested the sellers shortly after the purchase was completed.  

i lived in california for 40 yrs.  there are some people in that state that don't care about laws.  some of the people buying guns there don't want the weapon to be 'registered'.  america is a big place and i imagine there are some states where it is more difficult than others.  but i think buying a gun in most states is not very hard and you don't need a background check.  that said, the person selling you the weapon might be an undercover police officer so you do take risk.  stay safe out there !!!

[Grouse]

On 08/11/2017 at 7:24 PM, Grouse said:

Gross negligence. Just highlights how irresponsible the Americans have become

It gets worse

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/nra-carry-conceal-bill-states-pass-vote-congress-latest-a8088021.html

 

Looks like insanity is not confined to the White House. Crazy; so uncivilised!

[radiochaser]

On 12/1/2017 at 10:42 PM, Grouse said:

It gets worse

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/nra-carry-conceal-bill-states-pass-vote-congress-latest-a8088021.html

 

Looks like insanity is not confined to the White House. Crazy; so uncivilised!

Here is a link for a CBS broadcast station in Chicago, reporting on the FBI "Uniform Crime Report, ... statistical interpretation of crime in America."

It appears that most of the homicide deaths are in certain cites of the United States.  

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/10/22/violent-crime-statistics-for-every-city-in-america/