At least 26 killed after gunman opens fire in southern Texas church
Nov 5, 2017, 12:11 PM | Updated: Nov 6, 2017, 5:45 pm
(Twitter/@MaxMasseyTV)
(Twitter/@MaxMasseyTV)
At least 26 people have been killed and about 20 more were injured after a gunman opened fire during a church service in a southern Texas city on Sunday.
BREAKING: Governor says 26 people were killed in attack on Texas church in the deadliest mass shooting in the state's history
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 5, 2017
Police said a gunman walked into First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and started shooting around 11:30 a.m. Arizona time.
At the news conference, the attacker was described only as a white man in his 20s who was wearing black tactical gear and a ballistic vest when he pulled into a gas station across from the church, about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio.
The gunman, identified by several officials as Devin Patrick Kelley, a 26-year-old man from New Braunfels, Texas, crossed the street and started firing the rifle at the church, said Freeman Martin, a regional director of the Texas Department of Safety.
The suspect continued firing after entering the white wood-frame building, where a late-morning service was scheduled.
According to The Daily Beast, the suspect walked up and down aisles in the church and shot at victims in between pews. Sheriff Joe Tackitt said the gunman “just walked down the center aisle, turned around, and my understanding was, shooting on his way back out.”
Director of Public Safety describes how the Texas church shooting played out pic.twitter.com/RJ4tACgxtB
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) November 5, 2017
Police found hundreds of shell casings and 15 magazines with 30 rounds each at the scene of the crime.
Martin said the suspect was confronted by a resident after the attack, who began shooting at him and followed him as Kelley fled the scene.
Police later found the suspect dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his vehicle. He also had two other gunshot wounds from the resident who pursued him after the shooting.
BREAKING: Sheriff tells CBS News: Investigators believe suspect in Texas church shooting suffered self-inflicted gunshot wound.
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 6, 2017
The attack is the deadliest mass shooting in Texas’s history, according to Gov. Greg Abbott.
There has been no motive offered for why the suspect decided to walk into a church service of about 50 people and open fire, but officials said the suspect’s mother-in-law attended the church and received “threatening texts” from him before the attack.
BREAKING: Authorities say Texas shooting suspect's mother-in-law received threatening texts from gunman.
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 6, 2017
Police did not provide the identification of any of the victims, who ranged in age from 18 months to 77-years-old, but ABC News reported that a 14-year-old girl, the daughter of a pastor at the church, was among the dead.
First Baptist Church Pastor Frank Pomeroy tells ABC his 14yr-old daughter is among the dead—Says she "was one very beautiful, special child"
— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) November 5, 2017
A 6-year-old boy was among the injured, according to CBS News.
6yo boy named Rylan was shot 4 times at the church in Sutherland Springs & is now in surgery, according to his uncle who spoke to CBS News
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) November 5, 2017
Kelley, the alleged suspect in the shooting, was sentenced to a year in prison and was kicked out of the Air Force with a bad conduct discharge after he was found guilty of abusing his wife and stepchild in 2014.
Kelley did not have a license to carry a gun and the Air Force failed to inform the FBI of his criminal history, which would have made it more difficult for him to obtain a weapon.
BREAKING: Officials: Air Force didn't submit Texas church shooter's criminal history to FBI, as required by Pentagon rules.
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 6, 2017
Kelley was found guilty of assault in an Air Force court-martial in 2012 for abusing his wife and her child and was given 12 months’ confinement and a bad-conduct discharge in 2014.
That same year, authorities said, he bought the first of four weapons.
Under Pentagon rules, information about convictions of military personnel for crimes like assault should be submitted to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Investigation Services Division.
It’s the kind of lapse that gun-control advocates said points to loopholes and failures with the background check system.
Victims continue to seek treatment
Megan Posey, a spokeswoman for Connally Memorial Medical Center, which is in Floresville and about 10 miles from the church, said “multiple” victims were being treated for gunshot wounds after the shooting. She declined to give a specific number but said it was less than a dozen.
Some victims were taken by medical helicopter to the Brooke Army Medical Center, KSAT reported.
Neighbors say they heard shooter may have reloaded multiple times, around 50 people usually at service pic.twitter.com/tkAYMp2Y8A
— Max Massey (@MaxMasseyTV) November 5, 2017
Special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they were heading to the scene shortly after.
President Donald Trump, who was on an overseas trip to Japan at the time of the shooting, tweeted on Sunday that he is monitoring the situation.
May God be w/ the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI & law enforcement are on the scene. I am monitoring the situation from Japan.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2017
The governor tweeted his condolences shortly after the shooting.
Our prayers are with all who were harmed by this evil act. Our thanks to law enforcement for their response. More details from DPS soon. https://t.co/KMCRmOPkiM
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 5, 2017
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said in a tweet that “Arizona stands with Texas.”
Arizona stands with Texas. Sending out prayers to all the families and first responders affected. #SutherlandSpringsTexas https://t.co/kGRtIZysSl
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) November 5, 2017
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton also tweeted his condolences for the Texas shooting.
Another tragic act of violence and loss of lives. Phoenix sends its thoughts and prayers to Sutherland Springs and all of Texas.
— Greg Stanton (@MayorStanton) November 5, 2017
Alena Berlanga, a Floresville resident who was monitoring the chaos on a police scanner and in Facebook community groups, said everyone knows everyone in the sparsely populated county.
“This is horrific for our tiny little tight-knit town,” said Berlanga. “Everybody’s going to be affected and everybody knows someone who’s affected,” she said.
Regina Rodriguez arrived at the church a couple of hours after the shooting and walked up to the police barricade. She hugged a person she was with. She had been at an amusement park with her children when she heard of the shooting.
She said her father, 51-year-old Richard Rodriguez, attends the church every Sunday, and she hadn’t been able to reach him. She said she feared the worst.
Nick Uhlig, 34, is a church member who didn’t go Sunday morning because he was out late Saturday night. He said his cousins were at the church and that his family was told at least one of them, a woman with three children and pregnant with another, is among the dead. He said he hadn’t heard specific news about the other.
“We just gathered to bury their grandfather on Thursday,” he said. “This is the only church here. We have Bible study, men’s Bible study, vacation Bible school.”
“Somebody went in and started shooting,” he said, shaking his head and taking a long drag of his cigarette.
The church had posted videos of its Sunday services on a YouTube channel, raising the possibility that the shooting was captured on video.
In the most recent service, posted Oct. 29, Pastor Frank Pomeroy — whose daughter was killed in the shooting — parked a motorcycle in front of his lectern and used it as a metaphor in his sermon for having faith in forces that can’t be seen, whether it be gravity or God.
“I don’t look at the moment, I look at where I’m going and look at what’s out there ahead of me,” Pomeroy said. “I’m choosing to trust in the centripetal forces and the things of God he’s put around me.”
The number of victims has surpassed the number of people killed at the Emanuel AME Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, making it the deadliest shooting at a place of worship in modern U.S. history.
The shooting occurred about five weeks after a gunman opened fire on a crowd at a Las Vegas music festival, killing at least 59, including the shooter, and injuring about 489 more. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
Sutherland Springs is a small city about 40 miles east of San Antonio. The population of the town is about 643 people.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
