26 dead in Texas church shooting, judge orders Air Force more than $230 million
On November 5, 2017, there was a mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, USA. Devon Patrick Kelly, who served in the US Air Force, opened fire with a modified semi-automatic rifle, shooting at least 450. Bullets were fired, killing 25 people at the scene, including women and children.
Since one of them was a pregnant woman, 26 were officially registered as killed.
Kelly died on the run, presumably by suicide.
After the bloody incident, a U.S. Air Force spokesman admitted that the Air Force failed to submit records of Kelly's domestic violence crimes during his service to the FBI as required. Purchase background checks.
Kelly served in the logistics readiness unit at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until he was fired for violence in 2014.
Military records show Kelly kicked and nearly strangled her in 2012, and beat his stepson to a fractured skull.
Kelly was jailed for a year after being court-martialed and left the Air Force in 2014.
The Air Force was required to report these situations to the FBI, but it did not.
U.S. federal law prohibits the sale of firearms to people who have been in prison for more than a year, as well as the sale of firearms to people with a history of domestic violence against spouses and children.
In July 2021, a judge ruled that the U.S. Air Force was "60% responsible" for the shooting, arguing that the Air Force "did not report Kelly's criminal record", making him a "slippery fish" in the background check database for gun purchases .
Survivors of the shooting and families of those killed are seeking $418 million in damages from the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Department of Justice is seeking $31.8 million in compensation from the Air Force.
In the end, a federal judge ruled on the 7th local time that the U.S. Air Force should compensate more than $230 million, and the compensation will be distributed among about 80 claimants.