By Valeria Bula
Twenty-six people are reported dead as of Monday in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Texas on Sunday, Nov. 5, making the 5th deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history, and the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history.
Two of the five deadliest mass shootings in modern US history have occurred within the past 35 days.
The assailant, Devin Patrick Kelley, was a member of the US Air Force and served at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until his discharge. Kelley was court martialled in 2012 for assault on his wife and kids. Consequently, he served a year in confinement, received a bad conduct discharge and had his rank reduced.
In April 2016, Kelley purchased the Ruger AR-556 rifle allegedly used during the shooting from a store in San Antonio, Texas. Although having passed the background check required for purchase, Kelley was denied a license to carry a gun by the state of Texas.
On Sunday, the shooter was first spotted at a Valero gas station across the street from the church where the massacre took place around 12:20 ET. He then proceeded to drive across the street, firing before even entering the actual church.
“My dad saw the gunman run into the church building and then he heard shots and saw people running,” Dan Flores told CNN. “People covered in blood and screaming. It was pandemonium everywhere.”
Twenty-three people died inside the church, two outside, and one in the hospital. The youngest killed was a 17-month-old girl, the oldest was 77 years old. Among the dead was the pastor’s 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle Pomeroy.
Among the dead was also Kelley’s grandmother-in-law, Lula White, when intentionally headed to the church to kill his mother-in-law, whom Kelley had texted and threatened before carrying out the massacre.
After Kelley fled from the church, a local resident, Stephen Willeford, engaged with him using his own rifle. Kelley then dropped his weapon and fled, taking off in a Ford Explorer.
Another passer-by, Johnnie Lagendorff, witnessed the shootout between the shooter and armed resident. Willeford quickly briefed Lagendorff, who then took off chasing Kelley in his truck and called the police until Kelley eventually lost control of his car, driving into a ditch.
Law enforcement later found Kelley, dead, inside of his vehicle with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head as well as two other gunshot wounds in his leg and torso. After being shot initially, Kelley called his father saying he didn’t think he was going to make it, and proceeded to shoot himself.
Along with those killed, ten of the 20 people wounded remain critically hospitalized, according to authorities.
Virtually no one at the church was left unscathed, Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt said. “I think nearly everyone had some type of injury,” the sheriff told reporters Monday.
Authorities said 4% of the small town of Sutherland Springs’s population had been killed in the shooting. In the wake of the shooting, residents held a vigil Sunday night to mourn their loss.
