Texas Church Shooting: 3 Missed Chances To Deny Shooter Guns

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TX — Authorities missed at least three opportunities to file paperwork that would have prevented Texas church shooter Devin Kelley from getting a gun — after a 2012 domestic abuse conviction in military court, when he was committed to a mental institution for targeting his superiors in the Air Force with death threats, also in 2012, and again in 2013 when he was a suspect, but never charged, in a sexual assault investigation.

Kelley, 26, methodically walked from one pew to the next in the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Sunday, picking off victim after victim and shooting crying babies in the face, according to witnesses who survived the attack. When his carnage was over, 26 people were dead, including the unborn baby of one of the victims, and 20 more were injured.

Documents released Tuesday showed Kelley had been committed to a mental health facility in New Mexico in 2012 after he made death threats against superior officers at Holloman Air Force Base. He had been caught trying to sneak firearms onto the base. If reported, the involuntary commitment would have been grounds to deny Kelley the purchase of the Ruger AR-556 rifle and two other guns found in his car after he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Kelley purchased all of the guns, according to records.

Kelley was eventually court-martialed on domestic abuse charges stemming from an attack on his at-the-time wife and young son, who suffered a fractured skull in the assault, according to reports. Both Texas and federal law prohibit those convicted of domestic violence from owning or buying a gun.

In 2013, law enforcement officers in Kelley’s hometown of New Braunfels, Texas, investigated a sexual assault allegation against him. Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds told The Associated Press Tuesday that it appears sheriff's deputies investigated the case for three months after being called to Kelley's home, but dropped the case after they believed Kelley had left Texas and moved to Colorado. The local district attorney says the case was never presented to her.

Any of those incidents should have, but didn't, trigger paperwork that would have given gun dealers cause to turn Kelley away when he tried to buy weapons.

The Air Force said Tuesday it could not comment on the report of Kelley's commital to a mental institution, due to privacy laws, which spokesman Ann Stefanek said apply even though he is now dead.

Under Pentagon rules, information about convictions of military personnel in crimes like assault are supposed to be submitted to the FBI's Criminal Justice Investigation Services Division for inclusion in the National Criminal Information Center database.

The failure by the military to report Kelley's criminal past is hardly a one-off. The Pentagon has known for at least two decades about failures to give military criminal history information to the FBI, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The Air Force said in a written statement that Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein have ordered a review of the Kelley case by the Air Force Office of the Inspector General.

"The service will also conduct a comprehensive review of Air Force databases to ensure records in other cases have been reported correctly," Stefanek said. "The Air Force has also requested that the Department of Defense Inspector General review records and procedures across the Department of Defense."

Investigators with the FBI said they had been unable to crack the encryption on the gunman's cellphone, but that it had been shipped to the FBI Training Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Investigators have said getting information from the phone is critical to learning more about the killer's motivations.

Authorities have not released a motive for the shooting, but have said he had an ongoing domestic situation with his mother-in-law, who sometimes attended the First Baptist Church. She wasn’t there Sunday, but Kelley's wife’s grandmother, Lulu Woicinski White, 71, was among those killed.

About half of those killed or injured are children. The youngest was 18 months old and the oldest was 77. Sutherland Springs is a tiny town of just 362, and 4 percent of its population was killed in the massacre, the worst mass shooting in Texas’ worst mass shooting and the worst shooting in a house of worship in U.S. history.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will attend a prayer service Wednesday night for the victims. Earlier Wednesday, the Pences are expected to visit victims at Brooke Army Medical Center and then meet with families of the victims. They will also participate in a briefing with local law enforcement officials.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Watch: Texas Church Shooter Had A Violent Past

See Also:

• Texas Gunman Threatened To Kill Air Force Superiors: Report
• Texas Church Shooting Victims: Portraits Emerge Of 26 Who Died
• FBI Unable To Crack Encryption On Texas Mass Killer's Phone
• Devin P. Kelley, Texas Church Massacre Suspect: 5 Facts
• Texas Mass Shooting Victims: How You Can Help
• Misinformation Abounds In Wake Of Texas Mass Shooting
• Texas Resident Grabbed His Rifle, Stopped Church Shooting Suspect

Feature Image: Two women hug at a makeshift memorial for the First Baptist Church shooting victims Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017, in Sutherland Springs, Texas. A man opened fire inside the church in the small South Texas community on Sunday, killing more than two dozen and injuring others. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)