Texas mass church shooter texted threats to in-laws

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas: The man accused of killing 26 people, including an 18-month-old child, at a Texas church had sent threatening text messages to his in-laws who sometimes attended the church, before launching the latest US mass shooting, officials said yesterday.

“There was a domestic situation going on within the family and the in-laws,” said Freeman Martin, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“The mother-in-law attended the church. We know that she had received threatening text messages from him.”

The gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, was court-martialled in 2012 on charges of assaulting his wife and child and sentenced to 12 months confinement. He received a “bad conduct” discharge in 2014, according to Ann Stefanek, chief of Air Force media operations.

Kelley, 26, walked into the white-steepled First Baptist Church in rural Sutherland Springs on Sunday carrying a Ruger AR-556 assault rifle and wearing a black bulletproof vest, then opened fire during a prayer service, killing 26 people and wounding at least 20, officials said.

After he left the church, two residents, including one who was armed, chased Kelley in a truck and they exchanged gunfire. The chase ended when Kelley crashed his car, and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound or from the Good Samaritan’s weapon, said Martin.

An autopsy will determine cause of death, he said.

Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt said in an interview that the family members had not been present at the time of Kelley’s attack. – Reuters