Mistake let shooter buy weapons
The massacre of more than two dozen churchgoers — the youngest of whom was just 18 months old — occurred amid an ongoing “domestic situation” involving the gunman and his relatives, some of whom had attended the church, law enforcement officials said.
The Air Force launched an internal review into why it failed to provide key information to the FBI that should have prevented the attacker from purchasing firearms after he was discharged from the service. While in the Air Force, the gunman — Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, — was convicted by a general courtmartial on two charges of domestic assault, entered but into he the was a national conviction able to database, pass wasn’t meaning background checks to purchase weapons and obtain jobs without raising red flags. Texas officials said Kelley had sought and failed to obtain a permit allowing him to carry a concealed weapon after his release. He had an “unarmed private security license”. Kelley killed 26 people and injured 20 others, most of whom were praying in the pews of First Baptist Church. Among the dead here were eight relatives spanning three generations; the victims included toddlers, teenagers and the elderly. sending mother-in-law, church Freeman with Officials the when Texas “threatening Martin, said he Department who that opened a regional was Kelley texts” not fire. had director of to at Public the his been Safety, said: “There was a domestic situation going on within the family and seemingly Some the in-laws.” mass indiscriminately, shooters lash while out others in their target community their relatives they think or are those working against them. According to court-martial documents, Kelley kicked, choked and struck his wife in 2011 and 2012. He also struck her young child “on the head and body
with a force likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm”. Peter Blair, a criminal justice professor at Texas State University, said people who open fire in public places can have “rage welling up,” and then they lash out. “What you typically see in active shooter attackers is an avenger-type mentality,” said Blair, who co-wrote an FBI study in 2013 that examined 1600 active-shooter incidents. “They’re people who believe they’ve been wronged in some way. They get angrier and angrier, and they plan the attack as a way to get people to recognise their issue.”