AVOIDABLE?

U.S. Air Force Mostly to Blame for Sutherland Springs Massacre, Judge Rules

Devin Kelley had a previous conviction that was never registered in a federal database, making it possible for him to legally purchase a rifle to carry out the shooting.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez found that the U.S. Air Force bears most of the responsibility for the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, that left 26 people dead. The judge presiding over a civil lawsuit brought by survivors and victims’ families found the Air Force is 60 percent to blame because it never entered the 26-year-old shooter’s domestic assault conviction in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which would have prevented him from buying a firearm. Instead, former Airman Devin Kelley was able to purchase a rifle at a gun store and carry out the mass shooting. “Had the Government done its job and properly reported Kelleys information into the background check system—it is more likely than not Kelley would have been deterred from carrying out the Church shooting,” Rodriguez wrote. The judge has ordered those involved in the suit to set a trial plan within 15 days that will address monetary damages.