Texas Gunman Broke Skull of Infant Stepson in 2012 Assault
Quote:
Before a gunman entered a rural Texas church with a ballistic vest and a military-style rifle, killing at least 26 people on Sunday, he was convicted of assaulting his wife and breaking his infant stepson’s skull.
In 2012, while stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, Devin P. Kelley, 26, was charged with “assault on his spouse and assault on their child,” according to the Air Force.
“He assaulted his stepson severely enough that he fractured his skull, and he also assaulted his wife,” said Don Christensen, a retired colonel who was the chief prosecutor for the Air Force. “He pled to intentionally doing it.”
He was sentenced in November of that year to 12 months’ confinement and reduction to the lowest possible rank. After his confinement, he was discharged from the military with a bad conduct discharge. It is unclear whether his conviction would have barred him from purchasing a gun.
The case marked a long downward slide that included divorce and being charged with animal cruelty.
After Sunday’s shooting, friends from New Braunfels, Tex., where he went to high school, expressed shock, remembering how Mr. Kelley was a friendly, if awkward, teenager who in recent years grew so dark that many unfriended him on Facebook.
After Mr. Kelley was discharged from the Air Force in 2014, he remarried in Texas, to Danielle Lee Shields, in April of that year, according to state records.
A few months later, he registered to vote in Colorado Springs — a city with several Air Force bases — listing his address as parking space 60 the Fountain Creek RV Park.
A woman living in a camper next door, who gave her name only as Susan, said a man of similar age and description lived in spot 60 for a few months during that time, but she never learned his name.
“He was kind of off, lived here with a woman,” she said as she loaded blankets into one of the RV park’s washing machines.
“The only thing that sticks out about him was his dog,” she said.
He had a pit bull puppy that he kept tied up in the sun all day outside of his RV, she said. She also recalled an incident in which the police were called because the man had struck the dog in the head.
The police arrived and there was a standoff for approximately an hour, she said, in which her neighbor refused to come out of his trailer.
Records show Mr. Kelley was charged with cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor, in August 2014. The case was dismissed. He moved out a few weeks later, she said.
Friends on Facebook said that in recent years, Mr. Kelley had become vocally anti-Christian, to the point where many stopped communicating with him. His Facebook page, which has been deleted, listed that he liked a number of atheist groups.
“He was always talking about how people who believe in God were stupid and trying to preach his atheism,” one of his Facebook friends, Nina Rosa Nava, posted on the site, saying she unfriended him because of it.
According to local law enforcement, Mr. Kelley had become estranged from his second wife, who at times attended the church.
The cover photo on Mr. Kelley’s Facebook page appears to show a Ruger 8515 rifle, equipped with additional aftermarket products, including a red-dot aiming sight for faster target acquisition and perhaps a two-stage trigger for greater accuracy.
Such rifles have been legal to manufacture and sell to civilians in most of the United States since the federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004, and have become popular among many firearms owners.
Mr. Kelley seemed enamored with the weapon. He posted a photograph of it on Oct. 29 with the caption: “She’s a bad b***h.”
bolding mine for potential motive
Sutherland Springs church shooter didn't have gun license, threatened mother-in-lawQuote:
At a news conference, officials said Kelley had threatened his mother-in-law, who attended the church.
"There was a domestic situation going on within this family," said Freeman Martin, Texas Department of Public Safety regional director. Kelley's mother-in-law "had received threatening texts from him."
Authorities said the attack was not motivated by race or religion.
Earlier Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott suggested that Kelley may have a connection to the Baptist church.
Abbott said on ABC's Good Morning America that "law enforcement is looking very aggressively into this."
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05 Nov 2017, 10:17 pm
