What we know about the alleged Sutherland Springs church shooter
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (KXAN) – At a press conference Sunday evening, law enforcement officials said the shooter was white, in his 20s and wore all-black, “tactical-type gear” and used an assault rifle.
While law enforcement wouldn’t name him, NBC News identified the gunman in a deadly church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, as 26-year-old Devin Kelley.
“The delay in getting him identified is there are multiple weapons in the vehicle, and the vehicle is being processed by our Texas Ranger special operations group bomb techs,” said Department of Public Safety Regional Director Freeman Martin.
Martin did confirm the suspect was wearing a bulletproof vest and had a “Ruger AR assault-type rifle.”
The gunman was found dead in his vehicle on the Wilson County-Guadalupe County line after a citizen confronted him with his own rifle at the church and then chased him. The suspect had a gunshot wound but Martin said he does not know whether it was self-inflicted.
Public records show Kelley’s last address was in New Braunfels, and that his wife’s family lived in Sutherland Springs. A KXAN News crew saw law enforcement at his listed address on Farm to Market 2722 near New Braunfels Sunday evening.
Comal County records show two traffic violations – one for not stopping at a stop sign, and another for driving 52 miles per hour in a 35 mile per hour zone-both occurred in 2008. Another address listed an Air Force base in New Mexico from 2011 to 2012.
Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek confirmed that Kelley was previously a member of the Air Force and served in Logistics Readiness at Holloman AFB in New Mexico from 2010 until he was discharged. Stefanek says he was court-martialed in 2012 for two counts of assault – assault on his spouse and assault on their child. Kelley received a Bad Conduct Discharge and 12 months in confinement.