Texas gunman who killed 26 'sent threatening texts to mother-in-law'
The gunman who carried out a massacre at a small-town Texas church on Sunday was involved in a family dispute, the Guardian reports, citing authorities.
Twenty-six people were killed and 20 wounded in the shooting, which took place during a Sunday morning service.
“There was a domestic situation going on,” Freeman Martin, a spokesman for the Texas department of public safety, said at a press conference on Monday near the scene of the shooting in Sutherland Springs, about 35 miles east of San Antonio.
Martin said the named gunman, Devin Kelley, sent threatening texts to his mother-in-law. She had attended the First Baptist church in the past but was not there on Sunday.
“He expressed anger towards his mother-in-law,” Martin said. “This was not racially motivated, it wasn’t over religious beliefs.”
Of the deceased, 23 died in the church, two outside and one in hospital, Martin said. Among the 20 wounded, six were in stable condition or released, four in serious condition and 10 critical. The youngest to die was aged 18 months; the oldest was 77.
Martin said the 26-year-old Kelley, who lived in New Braunfels, about 35 miles north of Sutherland Springs, was “engaged” by a civilian with an AR rifle – a “Texas hero”, he said – who flagged down a motorist, jumped in his vehicle and chased Kelley, who was found dead in his SUV.
Martin said the suspect made a call on a cellphone to tell his father he had been shot and did not think he was going to make it.
Later, in an evening briefing, Martin said that an autopsy on the shooter’s body found three gunshot wounds – two from the armed citizen, one in the leg and in the torso – and a third in the head, consistent with being self-inflicted.
At least 15 magazines with a 30-round capacity have been recovered from the scene, the spokesman said. The evidence collection process is expected to be finishedon Mondaynight, with forensic mapping and trajectory analysis to take placeon Tuesday.
Chris Combs, an FBI special agent, said that of the four gun purchases made by the shooter, in each background check of three databases “there was not information that we would have said was prohibitive for that man to get the firearm”.
Three guns belonging to Kelley were recovered: a Ruger rifle, a black 9mm handgun and Ruger 22 pistol were found in his vehicle, Fred Milanowski, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent said. He also in the past had purchased another gun. Two were bought in Colorado and two in Texas, one per year from 2014 to 2017.
Authorities said there was video footage of the shooting from inside the church, which typically broadcast its services on YouTube. Kelley, dressed in all black and wearing a mask with a white skull face and a ballistic vest with a protective plate on the front, first attracted attention moments before the shooting when he was spotted at a gas station a block away from the church.
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