{"id":25946,"date":"2021-07-08T12:22:16","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T12:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/07\/08\/judge-air-force-mostly-at-fault-in-deadly-2017-texas-church-attack\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:48:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:48:31","slug":"judge-air-force-mostly-at-fault-in-deadly-2017-texas-church-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2021\/07\/08\/judge-air-force-mostly-at-fault-in-deadly-2017-texas-church-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge: Air Force mostly at fault in deadly 2017 Texas church attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Air Force is mostly responsible for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2021\/04\/09\/former-airman-who-gunned-down-texas-church-goers-likely-planned-the-attack-for-months\/\" target=\"_blank\">a former airman killing more than two dozen people <\/a>at a Texas church in 2017 because it failed to submit his criminal history into a database, which should have prevented him from purchasing firearms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio wrote in a ruling signed Wednesday that the Air Force was \u201c60 percent responsible\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/north-america-shootings-tx-state-wire-us-news-ap-top-news-eb4edefae08b4bde8efa6782e686bc33\">for the massacre at First Baptist Church in the small town of Sutherland Springs<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The attack remains the worst mass shooting in Texas history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe trial conclusively established that no other individual \u2014 not even Kelley\u2019s own parents or partners \u2014 knew as much as the United States about the violence that Devin Kelley had threatened to commit and was capable of committing,\u201d Rodriguez wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kelley had served nearly five years in the Air Force before being discharged in 2014 for bad conduct, after he was convicted of assaulting a former wife and stepson, cracking the child\u2019s skull.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ae88ccf204704a90b57ea1bd81bcf8de\">The Air Force has publicly acknowledged<\/a>&nbsp;that the felony conviction for domestic violence, had it been put into the FBI database, could have prevented Kelley from buying guns from licensed firearms dealers, and also from possessing body armor.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/12\/07\/air-force-failed-four-times-to-prevent-last-years-texas-church-shooting-dod-ig-now-reviewing-other-services\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"164\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP17309720617612.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Air Force failed four times to prevent the Texas church shooting; DoD IG now reviewing other services<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Air Force could have prevented a former airman from buying a weapon and committing a mass shooting last year had investigators followed proper protocol. Now the Pentagon is reviewing other service&#039;s compliance with the law.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rodriguez said that had the government done its job and entered Kelley\u2019s history into the database, \u201cit is more likely than not that Kelley would have been deterred from carrying out the Church shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An Air Force spokeswoman did not immediately return a request seeking comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Authorities said Kelley fired at least 450 rounds at helpless worshippers who tried taking cover in the pews. As he left the small wood-frame church, Kelley was confronted by an armed resident who had grabbed his own rifle and exchanged fire with him. Kelley fled as two Sutherland Springs residents gave chase, and died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after losing control of his vehicle and crashing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that survivors and relatives&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/texas-courts-gun-politics-business-religion-e9b32c75784f3b1f81734f10248d3a78\">can\u2019t sue a sporting goods chain<\/a>&nbsp;where Kelley purchased an AR-556 semi-automatic rifle used in shooting. Academy Sports and Outdoors had appealed after two lower courts declined to dismiss lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lawsuit against the federal government was brought by family members of the victims. Rodriguez ordered a later trial to assess damages owed to the families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Devin Kelley had served nearly five years in the Air Force before being discharged in 2014 for bad conduct, after he was convicted of assaulting a former wife and stepson, cracking the child\u2019s skull.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[101,23,24,88,16,26,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[946],"class_list":["post-25946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-disaster","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6CIL7AWW5ZDOTDDVDERAYUHWUM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2021\/07\/08\/judge-air-force-mostly-at-fault-in-deadly-2017-texas-church-attack\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Judge: Air Force mostly at fault in deadly 2017 Texas church attack - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Devin Kelley had served nearly five years in the Air Force before being discharged in 2014 for bad conduct, after he was convicted of assaulting a former wife and stepson, cracking the child\u2019s skull.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge: Air Force mostly at fault in deadly 2017 Texas church attack\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Devin Kelley had served nearly five years in the Air Force before being discharged in 2014 for bad conduct, after he was convicted of assaulting a former wife and stepson, cracking the child\u2019s skull.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2021\/07\/08\/judge-air-force-mostly-at-fault-in-deadly-2017-texas-church-attack\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Air Force TImes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-08T12:22:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T20:48:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul J. 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