GUNMAN OPENS FIRE IN CHURCH; 26 DEAD
A gunman wearing a bulletproof vest opened fire with an assault rifle on the congregation of a smalltown Texas church, killing 26 people and wounding 20 more in the nation’s latest shooting massacre.
President Donald Trump said the nation was living through “dark times” but guns were not to blame for Sunday’s carnage, which came just five weeks after the worst mass shooting in modern US history.
“I think that mental health is your problem here,” said the US president, speaking in Tokyo as part of his Asia tour. “This was a very -- based on preliminary reports -- a very deranged individual.”
“This isn’t a guns situation,” Trump insisted, calling it “a mental health problem at the highest level.”
The victims, who ranged in age from five to 72, were gunned down at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, a community of some 400 people 50 kilometers southeast of San Antonio.
The gunman, widely identified as Devin Kelley, 26, was described by authorities as a young white male who was found dead in his vehicle after being confronted by a local resident.
The Air Force said Kelley served at a base in New Mexico starting in 2010 before being court-martialed in 2012 for allegedly assaulting his wife and child.
He was sentenced to 12 months in confinement and received a “bad conduct” discharge, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told AFP. He was discharged in 2014.
Dressed all in black, Kelley fired outside the church before entering the building and continuing to spray bullets, said Freeman Martin, regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“As he exited the church, a local resident grabbed his rifle and engaged that suspect. The suspect dropped his rifle and fled from the church. Our local citizen pursued the suspect at that time,” Martin said.
Authorities found Kelley dead in his car, which had crashed on the Wilson-Guadalupe county line. It was not clear if he had killed himself or was shot.