Free Republic

Days after a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, the Biden Administration is fighting a court-ordered $230 million verdict for the victims of a different Texas mass shooting. The Justice Department filed an appeal in an attempt to not pay the multi-million dollar verdict to the families and victims of the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting by former Air Force airman Devin Kelley, said Texas attorney Thomas J. Henry. “That federal judge found that the United States government was at fault for allowing the gunman to acquire a gun because the...

A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Air Force must pay more than $230 million to survivors and victims' families of the 2017 shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Driving the news: U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in July ruled that the Air Force holds 60% of the responsibility for the shooting in the Texas church because it failed to enter the shooter's criminal history into a federal background check database used for gun purchases. More than 25 people were killed in the shooting.Rodriguez on Monday ordered the Air Force to pay millions, which will compensate more than 80 family...

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio wrote in a ruling signed Wednesday that the Air Force was "60% responsible" for the massacre at First Baptist Church in the small town of Sutherland Springs, 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. 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's skull. The Air Force has publicly acknowledged...

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Air Force is mostly responsible for a former serviceman killing more than two dozen people 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. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio wrote in a ruling signed Wednesday that the Air Force was “60% responsible” for the deaths and injuries at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. The attack remains the worst mass shooting in Texas history. Devin Kelley had served nearly five years in the...

What kind of vermin mocks prayer and politicizes human tragedy after a dark-hearted creep who reportedly bought dogs online and used them for target practice walks into a church and kills 26 innocent people?Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, for one, and leftists at large. Just after the Sutherland Springs, Texas shooting, Warren tweeted: “Thoughts and prayers are not enough, GOP. We must end this violence. We must stop these tragedies. People are dying while you wait.”The Hollywood hypocrite crowd paused from sexually assaulting each other long enough to attack the faithful for their “thoughts and prayers.” Meanwhile, Democrats chimed...

Jessika Edwards told CNN that she and Devin Kelley worked together at Hollomon Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 to 2012. Kelley was released from the military on a bad-conduct discharge in 2014 after serving time for assaulting his wife and stepson. Edwards said that when the two made contact on Facebook in 2014, Kelley said he had been purchasing dogs through Craigslist and then using them for “target practice.” While in the Air Force, she said, Kelley was preoccupied with mass murders and made jokes about killing people. ..." In 2014, the same year he allegedly made...

The Pentagon has known for nearly twenty years about major reporting lapses to the FBI of criminals within the U.S. military, The Associated Press reports. The AP discovered a 1997 report that detailed massive fingerprint reporting lapses of military criminals with the U.S. Navy and the Navy failed to report 94 percent of cases. “The lack of reporting to the FBI criminal history files prevents civilian law enforcement agencies from having significant information on military offenders,” the report warned 20 years ago. Military criminal reporting to the FBI has come under renewed scrutiny after former U.S. Air Force enlisted criminal...

SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS   After the deadliest mass shooting at a place of worship in US history, residents of Sutherland Springs vowed to move forward and reclaim their beloved way of life. SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS, AND NEW YORK—On a normal day in Sutherland Springs, Texas, all there is to fill the country air is the barks of local dogs and the hum of cars passing by. Indeed, locals say – with a hint of pride – you can drive through this town of several hundred without even noticing you did. But Sunday was not a normal day here. Instead, a...

Kelley first bought a Glock 9mm from Specialty Sports in December 2014 - the same year he got a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force, which should have precluded him from buying a gun. 'You never want to sell something to someone that will commit any form of crime, let alone a mass murder like this,' Lepp told KENS5. He says he wants to know what happened to cause the system to fail... A TIMELINE OF TEXAS CHURCH SHOOTER'S HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

<p>The maniac who killed 26 people inside a Texas church Sunday threatened his parishioner mother-in-law, officials revealed Monday.</p> <p>Devin Patrick Kelley “made threatening text​s​ to ​his ​mother in law who went to ​the ​church,” said Texas Department of Public Safety regional director Freeman Martin. ​​ The woman, who was not named, attends the church but was not there during the massacre Sunday, authorities said. Martin would not say whether the woman’s membership with the church motivated Kelley.</p>

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS -- Just days before the killer opened fire killing 26 church goers he walked among them. Five days before he would gun dozens of people down, Devin Patrick Kelley showed up at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs with his children for an annual fall festival. His appearance was unexpected because of the past family troubles, but people who saw him there thought it was a sign he was turning a corner. "And they thought, 'oh this is good. This is progress,'" said Tambria Read, a longtime resident of Sutherland Springs who is good friends with Kelley's...

The gunman accused of the worst mass murder in Texas history escaped from a mental health hospital during his stint in the Air Force, according to a 2012 police report. Police took Devin Kelley into custody on June 7, 2012 at a bus terminal in downtown El Paso, Texas, where he had planned to flee by bus after breaking out of Peak Behavioral Health Services, just over 10 miles away in New Mexico, according to NBC Houston affiliate KPRC. Kelley, who was 21 at the time of the escape, had been sent to the facility after he was accused of...

Within hours of the horrendous Texas church shooting, Keith Olbermann called President Donald Trump a “pig” for invoking God instead of gun control. The shooting occurred Sunday morning in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a 26-year-old man who was reportedly “an atheist” and who thought Christians were “stupid” opened fire on the congregants of First Baptist Church. The attacker killed 26 people. His violence was stopped by a good guy with a gun who “took cover behind a car” and shot at the attacker. President Trump was in Japan when the attack occurred. He tweeted: May God be w/ the people...

The gunman who killed at least 26 people in a church south of San Antonio was kicked out of the Air Force after cutting a plea deal in which he admitted to fracturing his stepson’s skull, the former head of Air Force prosecutors said Monday. Devin Patrick Kelley faced at least five years in a military prison for attacking the baby and also his wife, the former top Air Force prosecutor, retired Col. Don Christensen, said. An Air Force jury handed him a 12-month sentence in 2012, he said. “He entered pleas of guilty to fracturing his son’s skull, his...

The Texas church shooter who mercilessly shot dead 26 people and injured 24 others was an 'outcast' who 'preached his atheism' online. Former classmates say Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, who stormed First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs in Texas and opened fire on Sunday, was 'creepy', 'crazy' and 'weird'. Patrick Boyce, who attended New Braunfels High School with the killer, told DailyMail.com: 'He had a kid or two, fairly normal, but kinda quiet and lately seemed depressed. 'He was the first atheist I met. He went Air Force after high school, got discharged but I don't know why. 'I was...

The identity of the alleged assailant in the Texas Church shooting –that led to the death of over 20 individuals and injuries to dozens more– has been released and his name is Devin Patrick Kelley, who according to the NY Times is from nearby Comal County, Texas, which is roughly 30 mies north of San Antonio. According to crowd-sourced (and therefore unverified) Everipedia, here’s what is currently being said about Kelley. He graduated from New Braunfels High School (which just over 30 miles away from Sutherland Springs) and he served in the US Air Force. Little is known about the...

<p>Devin P. Kelley, who was court martialed from the U.S. Air Force, was identified as the gunman who walked into the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday morning and murdered at least 26 people, wounding many more in the tiny, rural community near San Antonio...</p>

A gunman opened fire inside the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs on Sunday, killing and injuring multiple people, authorities said The shooting suspect has been identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, CBS News has learned The Connally Memorial Medical Center said "multiple" victims are being treated Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they were responding to the shooting. An FBI crisis response team is also on the scene, a law enforcement official said Officials will hold a press conference that will be live on CBSN; watch in the player above

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas - At least 27 people have been killed and 30 people have been injured in a mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. A witness reported seeing the as-yet unidentified man walk into First Baptist Church and began shooting around 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Wilson County commissioner Albert Gamez Jr. told a CNN reporter that the gunman fled in a vehicle after the shooting and is now dead after a brief pursuit. Some survivors were taken to Brooke Army Medical Center via medical helicopter. Their conditions are not known.

Multiple witnesses told CBS affiliate KENS that several people were shot at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. Dana Fletcher, a business owner in the area, told CBS News she saw a "ton" of sheriff's vehicles and ambulances racing down the road. She said she doesn't know what happened but said there was heavy police presence and people being airlifted from the scene.