Air Force failed notify FBI 6 times of felony convictions for 2017 Texas church shooter
Kelley served in the Air Force for nearly five years before he was discharged in 2014 for bad conduct. He was convicted for domestic violence for assaulting his former wife and stepson.
"Its failure proximately caused the deaths and injuries of Plaintiffs at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church," U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez wrote.Associated PressThe Air Force reportedly failed to submit Devin Kelley's felony convictions to the FBI database six times. Above, a group of 12 pastors from local churches, pray beside a memorial service for victims of the mass shooting that killed 26 people in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on November 8, 2017.
Rodriguez said that had the government done its job and entered Kelley's history into the database,"it is more likely than not that Kelley would have been deterred from carrying out the Church shooting."Authorities said Kelley fired at least 450 rounds at helpless worshippers who tried taking cover in the pews. As he left the small wood-frame church, Kelley was confronted by an armed resident who had grabbed his own rifle and exchanged fire with him.