Police: Church shooter had ‘domestic’ issue, sent threats
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas — Another senseless act of violence. Another investigation to determine a motive for a shooting massacre that has ripped apart another community.
Barely a month after a lone gunman killed 58 concertgoers in Las Vegas, another individual shot up a house of worship in a rural community in southern
Texas, killing 26 people and wounding 20 others.
While law enforcement officials are still looking for a motive in the Las Vegas shooting, the Texas Department of Public Safety said the apparent motive behind the shooting in this rural town 35 miles east of San Antonio was domestic in nature. ■ Las Vegas paramedics respond to disasters across the country, including the Oct. 1 shooting. 8A
■ A Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center nurse recalls helping the injured in the hours after the shooting. 8A
The gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, sent threatening texts on his cellphone to his mother-inlaw before he methodically walked through the First Baptist Church here and shot congregants where she worshiped, law enforcement officials said Monday.
The woman was not in the church when the masked gunman attacked, but Freeman Martin, a Texas DPS regional
TEXAS
director, said the incidents were connected.
“There was a domestic situation going on in this family,” Martin said.
The Department of Public Safety, which is leading the investigation, has ruled out racial or religious motives. An FBI agent assisting the investigation also said, “At this time we do not have a terror investigation open.”
Law enforcement officials said Kelley was dressed in tactical armor and wearing a mask with a skull face whenhewalkeddowntheaisleat the church firing an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. He then turned around and continued shooting on his way out of the building, Wilson County Sheriff Joe D. Tackitt Jr. said at a news conference Monday.
As shots rang out, a local resident responded with a semi-automatic rifle, and “they engaged in a shootout at the church,” Martin said.
Kelley was shot in the exchange, and a high-speed chase ensued. Martin said Kelley used his cellphone to tell his father he was shot and that he didn’t think he would “makeit.”thechaseendedwhen Kelley crashed his car.
The cause of death will be determined by a pathologist, Martin said, but evidence at the scene suggests the cause was “self-inflicted.”
2012 court-martial
A native of the San Antonio suburb of New Braunfels, Kelley graduated from high school in 2009, according to a district spokeswoman. He enlisted in the Air Force the following year and was assigned to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. He got married in 2011.
But according to Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek, Kelley faced a court-martial in 2012 on allegations that he abused his wife and a child. According to court-martial documents the Air Force released Monday, Kelley was accused of choking his wife, pulling her hair and kicking her. He also hit the child on the head and body, according to the documents. The Air Force’s former chief prosecutor, Don Christensen, told The New York Times that Kelley fractured the child’s skull.
Kelley was sentenced to 12 months of confinement and ultimately removed from the military with a bad-conduct discharge and a reduction of rank.
Despite his 2014 discharge, Kelley purchased four weapons over the past four years — two in Colorado and two in Texas.
The Air Force acknowledged Monday that it didn’t enter Kelley’s criminal history into the federal database used to conduct background checks on citizens looking to purchase a firearm. The lapse prompted the Pentagon to announce a review of whether the problem has gone undetected in other cases across the military.
Fred Milanowski, special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said three of the four weapons Kelley purchased were found on him — a Glock 9-mm handgun, a Ruger .22-caliber handgun and a Ruger semi-automatic assault rifle.
Milanowski said Kelley’s military record and gun purchases were part of the probe.
“We are early in the investigation,” he said.
Kelley’s wife, Tessa Kelley, filed for divorce in 2012, the same year as the court-martial. The divorce was finalized in October 2012.
Kelley also was charged with animal cruelty in Colorado Springs, Colo., after witnesses said he jumped on a dog and began hitting it around the face and neck.
Another community grieves
As in Nevada a month earlier, this rural community is now trying to come to grips with an unexplained tragedythatleftmothers,parentsand neighbors grieving for loved ones and friends lost in the carnage.
The victims ranged in age from 18 months to 77, and as many as 14 were children, according to law enforcement officials. One family lost eight members.
About 20 other people were wounded. Ten of them were still hospitalized Monday in critical condition.
One of the deceased was 14-yearold Annabelle Pomeroy, daughter of the church pastor, Frank Pomeroy, and his wife, Sherri, who were away and not at the church when the shooting occurred.
On Monday they attended the news conference to ask people to remember all the victims of the shooting.
“We lost more than ‘Belle yesterday,” Sherri Pomeroy told the news