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5 November 2017 — At least 26 people were killed in Texas, with many more
wounded, after a gunman opened fire at a church outside San Antonio on
Sunday, the state’s governor confirmed.
The gunman has been identified as 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley. The
mass shooting unfolded at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs,
which is about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio. Officials said it’s unclear
whether Kelley killed himself or was fatally shot by police.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said up to 27 people were killed and
“many more” wounded after a man walked into the church around 11:30 a.m.
on Sunday and opened fire at the crowd of people.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a press conference Sunday evening that
the victims range in age from 5 to 72 years old. Another official said
approximately 20 others were transported to hospitals with injuries ranging
from minor to “very severe.”
Sunday’s shooting is the deadliest church shooting in modern U.S. history.
It is also, according to Abbott, the deadliest in the history of Texas.
A possible motive was unclear. Kelly served in the U.S. Air Force until 2014
and lived in a suburb of San Antonio and didn’t appear to be linked to
organized terrorist groups, a police spokesman told The Associated Press.
The official said investigators were looking at social media posts Kelley may
have made in the days before Sunday’s attack, including one that appeared
to show a semiautomatic weapon.
Kelley was discharged from the Air Force in 2014, according to Defense
Department records. Kelley was court martialed in November 2012 and a
judge sentenced him with a bad-conduct discharge, 12 months confinement,
and two reductions in rank to basic airman, according to an appeals court
decision in 2013 that affirmed the decision against Kelley.