Who Is Devin Patrick Kelley?
The man behind the brutal mass shooting at a Texas church has been identified as Devin Patrick Kelley.
The 26-year-old suspect was reportedly already armed when he arrived at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday. Wearing all-black tactical gear and a ballistics vest, and carrying an assault-type rifle, he opened fire, taking the lives 26 people, including children. There were 20 other people who suffered injuries.
The suspect had a rich history of exhibiting disturbing behavior. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek revealed to NBC News that Kelley, who entered the military after he graduated from New Braunfels High School, was court-martialed on two charges of assault in 2012.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
He was reportedly convicted of assaulting his first wife, Tessa, and fracturing his stepson's skull, while they were at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
The other women whom he had past relationships with also had something to say about Kelley.
"He was very sick in the head," Katy Landry, Kelley's former girlfriend, who met him in church as a teenager, told the news outlet. "Years after dating me he would try to bribe me to hang out with him. He ended up assaulting me. He would stalk me by repeatedly calling me — even prank calling me, saying really weird stuff," she added.
Also, according to CNN, a neighbor alerted the authorities back in 2014 when he saw Kelley physically harming a dog. However, he denied the allegation.
Kelley remarried in the same year. Although the status of his recent marriage is still unclear, authorities revealed that he had some conflicts with his in-laws, who had been known to attend the church where the mass shooting took place. Luckily, they were not present during the incident.
"The suspect's mother-in-law attended this church," Freeman Martin, regional director of the state Department of Public Safety, stated in a news conference on Monday. "She has received threatening texts from him," Martin added.
As per CBS News, Martin did not go into details regarding the text messages but said the shooting was not, in any way, related to religion or race, nor does he have any connections to terrorist groups.
The suspect was shot by an unnamed resident after he left the church. Officials revealed that Kelley fled in his car, and the said resident chased him down until he crashed his vehicle.
When the authorities arrived, Kelley was already dead, apparently from shooting himself.
