Pentagon Watchdog: Air Force Shirked Four Chances to Stop Sutherland Springs Killer
Source: The Daily Beast
Devin Patrick Kelley abused his wife, beat his infant stepson, and was reported to have raped a woman. But the Air Force never flagged him to the FBI before his church rampage.
Spencer Ackerman
12.07.18 12:41 PM ET
The 26 people murdered and 22 wounded in a Texas church in November 2017 by a disgraced airman might still be alive and well if the U.S. Air Force had done as required and alerted the FBI to his danger, according to a shocking new Pentagon inspector general’s report.
There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States in the year since Devin Patrick Kelley shot up the First Baptist Church on a Sunday morning in Sutherland Springs, about 30 miles outside San Antonio. But his massacre, for which he was kitted out in what a witness described as “full gear,” was the bloodiest act at a U.S. house of worship to date.
Kelley, who served in the Air Force from 2010 to 2012, exhibited clear warning signs that he posed a threat to others. Like many mass murderers, he had an extensive history of misogynistic violence.
Yet on four different occasions, the Air Force did not follow Defense Department policy to pass Kelley’s fingerprints to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services once Air Force investigators determined probable cause for assault, the IG report states. The point of the policy is to prevent violent people from legally purchasing firearms. Kelley went on his killing spree, CNN reported, after legally purchasing a Ruger AR-556 rifle from an outdoor sporting-goods store in San Antonio. Among his victims were eight members of a single family, and the 14-year-old daughter of First Baptist’s pastor.
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