# violence
Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire during a Sunday service at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, killing more than two dozen people, including eight children. Kelley, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after being chased by two men who heard gunshots at the church, had served in the Air Force before the attack.
U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled in July that the Air Force was "60 percent responsible" for the attack because it failed to submit Kelley's conviction for the attack while he was in the Air Force to a national database.
Air Force records from Kelley's court-martial show he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of assault, including assaulting his wife, putting his hands around her neck and kicking her. He was also convicted of striking his stepson on the head and body "with a force likely to cause death or grievous bodily harm".
In 2012, months before his conviction in the domestic violence case, Kelley briefly fled a mental health center in New Mexico and got into trouble for bringing guns onto a military base and threatening his superiors there, according to police reports.
Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds said deputies were called to Kelly's home in New Braunfels in June 2013, investigated the rape and conducted a three-month investigation. But they appear to have stopped investigating after they believed Kelley had left Texas and moved to Colorado. The case was subsequently filed as a mistrial, Reynolds said.