Judge says Air Force is primarily responsible for Sutherland Springs shooting: NPR

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A memorial for the victims of the shooting at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church in 2017 includes 26 white chairs, each painted with a cross and rose and placed in the shrine in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Eric Gay / AP


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Eric Gay / AP


A memorial for the victims of the shooting at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church in 2017 includes 26 white chairs, each painted with a cross and rose and placed in the shrine in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Eric Gay / AP

AUSTIN, Texas – A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Air Force is primarily responsible for a former serviceman who killed more than two dozen people in a Texas church in 2017 because she failed to submit her background criminals in a database, which should have prevented him from buying guns.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio wrote in a decision signed Wednesday that the Air Force was “60% responsible” for the First Baptist Church massacre in the small town of Sutherland Springs, where Devin Kelley opened fire during a Sunday service. Authorities put the official death toll at 26 because one of the 25 people killed was pregnant.

The attack remains the worst mass shooting in Texas history.

“The lawsuit conclusively established that no other individual – not even Kelley’s own parents or partners – knew as much as the United States about the violence Devin Kelley threatened and was capable of committing.” , Rodriguez wrote.

Kelley had served nearly five years in the Air Force before being discharged in 2014 for misconduct, after being convicted of assaulting an ex-wife and a stepson, smashing the skull of the ‘child. The Air Force has publicly acknowledged that the domestic violence conviction, if it had been recorded in the FBI database, could have prevented Kelley from purchasing firearms from licensed gun dealers, and also from owning a vest -balls.

Rodriguez said if the government had done its job and entered Kelley’s story into the database, “it is more likely than not that Kelley would have been dissuaded from carrying out the Church shooting.”

An Air Force spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment.

Authorities said Kelley fired at least 450 bullets at helpless worshipers trying to take cover on the benches. As he left the small, wood-frame church, Kelley was confronted by an armed resident who had grabbed his own rifle and exchanged shots with him. Kelley fled as two Sutherland Springs residents pursued him and died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after losing control of his vehicle and crashing into a crash.

Last month, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the survivors and their loved ones cannot sue a sporting goods chain where Kelley bought an AR-556 semi-automatic rifle used for shooting. Academy Sports and Outdoors appealed after two lower courts refused to dismiss the lawsuits.

The lawsuit against the federal government was brought by family members of the victims. Rodriguez ordered a subsequent trial to assess the damages owed to the families.

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