The Air Force Mostly Responsible for the 2017 Texas Church Attack

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AUSTIN, Texas (AFP) – A federal judge has ruled that the US Air Force is most likely responsible for the killing of more than two dozen people at a Texas church in 2017 by a former soldier because it failed to provide his criminal history in a database, which should have prevented him from buying Firearms.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio wrote in a ruling signed Wednesday that the Air Force was “60 percent responsible” for the massacre of the First Baptist Church in the small town of Sutherland Springs, where Devin Kelly opened fire during Sunday mass. Authorities put the official death toll at 26 because one of the 25 was pregnant.

The attack remains the worst mass shooting in Texas history.

Rodriguez wrote: “The trial proved conclusively that no other individual – not even Kelly’s parents or accomplices – was as knowledgeable as the United States of the violence that Devin Kelly threatened and was able to commit.”

Kelly had served nearly five years in the Air Force before he was discharged in 2014 for misconduct, after being found guilty of assaulting an ex-wife and her stepson, which fractured the child’s skull. The Air Force has publicly admitted that a domestic violence conviction, had it been placed in the FBI’s database, would have prevented Kelly from purchasing weapons from licensed firearms dealers, as well as from possessing body armor.

Rodriguez said that had the government done its job and entered Kelly’s history in the database, “it is likely that Kelly would have been deterred from carrying out the church shooting.”

An Air Force spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Authorities said Kelly fired at least 450 shots at helpless worshipers who tried to take cover in the benches. As he left the wood-framed chapel, Kelly encountered an armed resident who grabbed his own rifle and exchanged fire with him. Kelly fled with the pursuit of two Sutherland Springs residents, and died of gunshot wounds after his car lost control and crashed.

Last month, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that survivors and relatives cannot sue a sporting goods chain where Kelly purchased an AR-556 semi-automatic rifle used for shooting. The Academy of Outdoor Sports appealed after two lower-tier courts refused to dismiss the lawsuits.

Family members of the victims sued the federal government. Rodriguez ordered a subsequent trial to assess the damages owed to the families.

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