The gunman who committed the deadly church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas Sunday purchased an assault rifle despite having committed crimes that should have prevented him from doing so, ABC News reports.
Devin Kelley, 26, a former member of the Air Force, was discharged from the military after being court-martialed for a count of assault on his spouse and child in 2012. Under U.S law, a person convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic assault is prohibited from possessing firearms, but in April of 2016, Kelley was able to purchase a Ruger AR 556-rifle at a sporting goods store in San Antonio, Texas.
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On Sunday, November 5, Kelley entered the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas armed with the very gun he had purchased in 2016. He shot and killed at least 26 people and injured more than 20 before fleeing in a vehicle. After a brief chase into another county, Kelley was killed, although it has not been determined if his death was caused by a self-inflicted gunshot wound or if he was killed by police. The shooting, which claimed the lives of both adults and children, marked the fifth deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
It is not yet known if there were exceptions in Kelley’s case that allowed him to purchase the rifle.
