Texas Officials Say Sutherland Shooter Was Embroiled in a ‘Domestic Situation’
“This was not racially motivated, it wasn’t over religious beliefs”
Details are emerging about Sunday’s Sutherland Church massacre an in particular, gunman Devin Patrick Kelley.
Monday, Texas officials said Kelley was embroiled in a domestic situation and had sent threatening text to his mother-in-law, an attendee of First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. Officials declined to provide more detail.
The WSJ reported:
he gunman who killed and wounded dozens of churchgoers during worship Sunday morning had sent threatening text messages to his mother-in-law, who attended the church, law-enforcement officials said.
“We can tell you there was a domestic situation going on within his family,” said Freeman Martin, Texas Department of Public Safety regional director. “The suspect’s mother-in-law attended this church…she received threatening texts from him. We can’t go into details into the domestic situation that is continuing to be investigated.”
…Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt Jr. said Kelley’s in-laws attended the church but weren’t there Sunday morning.
Kelley, who served in the Air Force was “court-martialed in 2012 for two counts of assault on his spouse and on their child. He was given a “bad conduct discharge,” according to court records,” reports the WSJ. He was sentenced to a year in military prison and discharged in 2014.
While the exact motive remains unclear (or yet to be released by local authorities), authorities emphasized the massacre was not racially or religiously motivated. From the WaPo:
While authorities have not publicly identified a motive for the attack, they emphasized Monday that the shooting did not appear to be fueled by racial or religious issues.
…“This was not racially motivated, it wasn’t over religious beliefs,” Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety said at a news briefing. “There was a domestic situation going on within the family and the in-laws.”
Neighbors say Kelley would fire weapon late at night:
We’ll continue to provide more details as they become available.
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Comments
So it’s just a random coincidence that Kelley targeted the members of this church, then? Or is there a rush to exonerate hatred directed against Christianity/Christians to keep this off the lists of hate crimes so as to perpetuate the Narrative? Curious contrast with the Las Vegas shooting, where the authorities still will not publicly discuss the shooter’s motivations.
Read more carefully. The perp was CONVICTED of ASSAULTING HIS WIFE AND CHILD in 2012, which resulted in a year in a military jail and then a Bad Conduct Discharge. Both the Big Chicken Dinner and the domestic violence against his wife should have precluded him owning or even having a firearm or other weapon in every state in the country.
If you know anything about spousal abuse, then you realize that this guy had to blame somebody and he was making threats against his former mother-in-law, who attended the church that he shot up. Clearly, as many abusers do, he blamed his MIL because his wife filed charges against him and blamed her for the breakup of the marriage.
Nothing to do with politics or Christianity and it wasn’t some random church or fluke. Was it a “hate crime” – absolutely. Against his wife, child and MIL. Everyone else was just collateral damage of his rage.
Embrace the healing power of “and”: domestic violence and anti-Christian hatred are not mutually-exclusive.
Indiscriminately murdering 26 innocents at Sunday worship is a lot more than merely “collateral damage”. It’s quite possible he would have systematically massacred the entire church populace had a good neighbor not engaged him with a rifle and wounded him. His preparation and dress clearly indicate a deep brooding hatred of the church, not just his mother-in-law.
This Past Weekend, Summarized
Posted by V the K at 7:38 pm – November 6, 2017.
Filed under: Violence on the Left,War on Christians
On Saturday, a Republican Senator was violently assaulted by a Democratic-Socialist who broke five of his ribs. Then, on Sunday, an atheist who was able to illegally purchase a gun because a bumbling Federal bureaucrat failed to put his name in the NICS database shot up a church full of Christians. In response, a bunch of progressives…
http://www.gaypatriot.net/2017/11/06/this-past-weekend-summarized/
I absolutely want to know how he had the firearms.
I also will tell you it takes a lot to get a year in jail for domestic abuse. It was not as simple as a single hit that got him the prison time.
With the Lautenberg Amendment he should have been nowhere near a firearm.
See above.
“….because a bumbling Federal bureaucrat failed to put his name in the NICS….”
BCD won’t preclude firearms, but the domestic abuse charge should have.
Surprisingly enough, that’s correct. BCD isn’t grounds for rejection, but a DD is. And the military doesn’t have to report Domestic Violence to NICS. (But you’d better not be a vet that has someone manage his financial affairs for you!)
(Um, didn’t Kelly have a DD yesterday and now it’s a BCD?)
If the USAF didn’t report the domestic violence convictions to the FBI, he would have cleared a NICs check, absent other convictions and could have purchased a firearm by lying on the 4473.
It’s reported that Texas refused him a concealed carry permit. If that was based on a background check, it’s possible that the store where he purchased the AR-15 received a delay on his NICs check and they executed a Brady Transfer 3 business days later. If the FBI does not issue a denial, FFLs are allowed by Federal law to complete the transfer. If this occurred, the FBI should have followed up on the transaction.
The problem in this case is that the BCD does not preclude a firearms transfer [noted above]. A DD would have. a conviction, for what is essentially a misdemeanor crime,does not necessarily get reported to NCIC if it occurred in the military. So, as far as FBI, which runs the NICS, is concern it never happened. The state of Texas will only issue a concealed carry permit if an armed service member has an honorable discharge. It is a relatively simple matter for the State of Texas to determine if the applicant saw military service and what his status of separation is. So, no carry permit was issued.
I am trying to figure out why you got down voted.
I think the guy had a deep hatred of Christianity. He shot at the church from the outside from two different positions before going inside to shoot. That tells me this was more than just a grudge against someone in there.
What better place for a christian to die? In Hamlet Act III Scene 3, Hamlet does not kill Claudius because he is at prayer and confessing his sins. Hamlet reasons that Claudius would go straight to heaven.
I suspect that few of you believe what you demand the rest of us to believe. Why do you fear death so much when you are all going to heaven? So much for “I’ll see you again – this side or the other.”
..and the trolls have started to arrive.
What an asshat; he can’t even troll effectively.
Do you truly not see your own evil here? Are you so depraved of mind that you see this as a thought worth sharing?
Yes, the Christian should not fear death as an end, but look forward to an eternity spent with God. That does not stop children from being orphans or women from being widows. That does not stop the pain of loss experienced when we lose those we love. No Christian cries for another Christian, but we show our own pain and loss and someone we love is taken from us. It grieves us to know those we rely on and share a bond with are gone and that part of our identity is gone with them.
If you are simply a troll, I hope the Prof. bans you. You add no value to the discourse here. You do not make others consider a different viewpoint and your arguments are poor and easily defended against. What are you doing? Why are you here?
There are too many of these incidents – one a week. They primarily star some white dude who was raised christian. Read the comments here. How many of them want to deflect the evil reality by blaming this on democrats or atheists? Sorry no libtards or snowflakes are shooting up America.
Trump was quick to weigh in on NYC and blame liberals. But he had nothing to say on this or Las Vegas. How partisan do you have to be to not clean up your own mess and not allow our enemies to depict us as hypocrites?
Yes it is evil. Not facing the reality of it means it will go on and on and on. Call me a troll if you wish to dismiss me. But if you are honest, you should be able to handle a dissenting view. The point I made came right out of Shakespeare.
Even if we assume that you are right about the motives of the commenters here wanting to further their (our) preferred narrative, how does that address the evil in your heart that I asked about? Are you unwilling to look at yourself and see the contempt for the lives and pain of others that you are showing? You speak of deflection, but that is what you have done here.
A quick google search tells me that “these” shootings do not happen every week. Can you please give me the definition you are using to make this claim an honest one? It would also allow me to see if you are correct to say that “these” shootings are done by nominally Christian, white men. It does not seem to be the case by any definition of mass shooting I can find. If you could provide me with the information that led you to make that claim, it would go quite a long ways toward furthering your idea that you offer “dissenting” viewpoints. While I don’t know how you define libtards, I put forward the claim that MOST mass shootings either non-political or done by men that lean left. That is literally the entire substance of your argument. This is what I mean when I say you don’t offer dissenting viewpoints.
I will offer you a basic dissent. You claim that these shootings are done by white men that are raised Christian. I can’t take this seriously for two reasons: 1) The lack of verifiability of your statement of fact and the inconsistency of logic you have when your claim requires “white and raised Christian” is separate from “democrat and atheist.” I suggest to you that there is significant overlap there.
To say your argument about Christian death comes out of Shakespeare reveals a profound ignorance. These baptists don’t believe in purgatory. They don’t believe that if they die without a last rite, that they must suffer to be purged of evil after death. Are you so ignorant of all things on which you choose to comment?
Oh, how cute! You think someone wants your little ol’ opinion.
I find it strange that the Democrats have been relatively quiet with their accusations. I wonder if this wingnut was a registered Democrat. Obviously his gears were slipping, but were is the progressive Marxist ‘cheerleading squad’?
Given what I’ve seen reported about his social media accounts, I’ll be dumb-founded if it turns out he’s not a Bernie Bro or similar progressive wing-nut.
I’ve seen several reports that he’d “friended” numerous Atheism Facebook pages and had listed his occupation as “Nazi Puncher” which implies Antifa-type nutter thought processes. The press keeps stating he worked at a Christian day care, but his Linkedin page shows that job lasted a max of one month. Why so short?
Those postings could be “fake news” so I’ll withhold judgement, but at this point he’s looking like a Dim loon.
An atheist who teaches Bible classes in Vacation Bible School?
A Penn Jilette protegee??
It has been reported he was a Democrat and a far left loon.
You wonder? Don’t you mean you hope?
Besides what difference does it make? They are just as dead and it is not as if killing christians was in the democratic platform.
…it is not as if killing christians was in the democratic platform.
Yet
Save it until it is. Right now it is deflection by someone who doesn’t want to face the truth.
Killings as many babies in the womb as possible didn’t used to be part of the Democrat Platform just a few short years ago.
Now it’s at the top of the list.
It would be dishonest of you to claim that Democrats aren’t waging a war against Christianity.
But honesty doesn’t seem to play any part in your trolling here
The left’s relative silence could be due to the fact that an armed citizen engaged the shooter and most likely prevented additional deaths. A good guy with a gun doesn’t fit the “narrative”, so let’s just move on to “Russia!”
If he was just mad at his mother-in-law then why didn’t he just target her? Why shoot up a whole church filled with people who weren’t related to him and probably had nothing to do with his domestic problems? The only thing that I can think of in that regard is that maybe he wanted to publicly execute her, but if that’s the case then why didn’t he just separate her out from the rest of the crowd and only shoot her? Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be seeking rational explanations for why a man with possible mental problems and a definite temper did something so horrific.
“Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be seeking rational explanations for why a man with possible mental problems and a definite temper did something so horrific.”
There’s no making sense of irrational &/or evil behavior. Bad or messed up people occasionally do bad things, with whatever weaponry can be brought to bear. No fundamental difference between this guy & Ted Kaczynski, except one is dead.
This may further muddy these waters: This morning I saw on Today a photo of this turd that showed him with a “pixie-style” haircut and what appeared to be a strand of pearls around his neck; wearing a plain crew-neck sweater. It looked like the uniform of any of the girls in my HS yearbook (c.1961-62). Now I see an obvious male face with the close cropped hair, etc. I’ve not seen the one with the feminine slant since.
Could he have had a period of “confused gender”, or whatever they call it, and it finally twisted him off. He is said to have had a wife and child while in the USAF and they were the victims of his domestic violence. Did the wife divorce him while in the USAF jail? If so (she should have) are we talking about a new domestic relationship that has gone south… and when will we see dates as to when these various photos were taken.
The amount of things that are not explained when the question is obvious, as well as the things not said, are as important as what is said.
Its been over 24 hours… if nothing else they should know if the gunshot that killed him was self-inflicted. We should know what the weapon was, etc.
Once it was reported yesterday that the mother in law had a PO box at this place, it became foreseeable that this was rage directed there. Would not be surprised to learn that he hated her for turning his wife or ex-wife against him. To kill all these innocent and uninvolved people, this guy did not possess any emotions not negative. Combustible in this day and age, where alienation is becoming the rule.
BS. Straight from the FBI fake info playbook. This most assuredly was about his anti-Christian beliefs. He was another far left Democrat that hated Christians.
How many times does a nominally christian white guy have to kill school children, country music fans or church goers before you start to realize that the fault is not in your stars, but it yourselves? Anything, but face the ugly truth!
Professor, please ban this ShareBlue troll.
Violent Atheist postings on social media.. FBI says nothing to do with religion after church shooting..
duh a church shooting says it has Everything to do with religion.
I cannot fathom how the only invention in human history that cannot be made safer is the gun. We literally have table saws that won’t cut off a finger. We have runaway truck ramps. I could name countless other improvements whose sole purpose was to make a human invention safer.
I am not saying that this particular incident could have been avoided. But Trump has already said that guns will not be looked at. A NJ gun dealer put on sale a gun that required the user wear a ring to establish that the rightful person was firing the weapon. Not only did the nation’s gun aficionados freak out, but his life was threatened. Yes, I know about the Jersey law. But the author of the law offered to repeal it so that people who wanted that safety could have it. Besides the gun is sold nowhere.
Trump declared him crazy. So we can now retroactively remove the right of any mass killer to have purchased a gun and return to ruminating about muslim terrorists. We will ignore the nominally christian white guys who do mass shootings because ……….. Well, pick your own rationalization, deflection or sophistry.
If you knew anything about guns you would know that they are extremely safe. 99.999% of those in America have never been involved in a crime. You fail to realize that the guns in this event worked exactly as designed – they just happened to be in the hands of an evil person who broke many laws on Sunday.
“We literally have table saws that won’t cut off a finger. ”
Boring and beyond dumb. Please ban it.
“We have runaway truck ramps”
What a profoundly stupid statement… hello, where was the runaway truck ramp in NYC last week?
Don’t go away mad, just go away.
Like it or not, there’s thousands and possibly hundreds thousands of these types in our country. Fortunately many found their way into prison, but many don’t and then this happens. Much as it makes us feel “right” to label them to meet our respective world view, that does nothing to protect the innocent.
History seldom respect’s the rights of the innocent. The past is unkind to soft targets. It is the only rational take away I can glean from these events.
The official statement is certainly wrong. He could have caught the in laws at their home, but he chose the church because he despises Christians and wanted to kill as many as he could in addition to his in laws. I don’t understand this willful blindness.