There were 26 people killed and some 20 others wounded on Sunday morning (November 5th) when a man dressed in black tactical gear opened fired with an assault rifle during a service inside a church in the small Texas town of Sutherland Springs in the deadliest mass shooting in the state's history. Those killed at First Baptist Church ranged in age from just five years old to 72, and included the church pastor's 14-year-old daughter and a pregnant woman.
The attacker has been identified in media reports as 26-year-old Devin Kelley. As he left the church, he was confronted by a town resident with a rifle. Kelley was found dead in his vehicle a short time later at the county line, and officials said it was unclear if he'd died of a self-inflicted wound or was shot by the man who confronted him.
Kelly lived in a suburb of San Antonio and didn't appear to be linked to organized terrorist groups. Investigators said they weren't ready to discuss a possible motive. Kelley served in the Air Force, but received a bad-conduct discharge for allegedly assaulting his wife and child, and was sentenced to 12 months' confinement after a 2012 court-martial. He was able to buy the assault rifle used in the attack despite a law that bans people convicted of domestic violence from owning firearms. In the days before the attack, Kelly had posted a photo of an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon on social media, and neighbors are now saying that they heard intensifying gunfire coming from the direction of his home in recent days.
President Trump, who is traveling in Japan, called the shooting an "act of evil" and Kelly a "very deranged individual," stating, "This isn't a guns situation. This is a mental health problem at the highest level."
(Pulse Networks)