US Air Force Ordered to Pay $230 Million for 2017 Texas Church Shooting

The Air Force U.S must pay more than 230 million dollars in compensation to the survivors and relatives of those killed in a shooting at a church in Texas in 2017, for failing to flag a conviction that could have prevented the assailant from legally getting the gun he acquired in the attack, a federal judge ruled Monday.

More than twenty people showed up when Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire during a Sunday ceremony at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. He reportedly took his own life after being shot and chased by two men who heard the shots in the church. He had been a member of the Air Force.

LOOK: Texas gunman killed eight children in church attack

District Judge Xavier Rodriguez had ruled in July that The Air Force was “60% responsible” for the attack because it failed to report Kelley’s conviction for assault during his time in the Air Force to a national database.

A court-martial record of Kelley in the Air Force notes that the defendant pleaded guilty to various specifications of assault, including beating his wife, strangling her with his hands and kicking her. He was also found guilty of striking his stepson’s head and body “with a force likely to result in death or serious bodily harm.”

• Video shows how Texas killer shot to execution
• Texas killer fled mental health clinic in 2012
• Devin Kelley: What is known about the author of the worst massacre in Texas?

In 2012, several months before he was found guilty in the domestic violence case, Kelley occasionally escaped from a mental health facility in New Mexico and got in trouble for bringing firearms into a military base. and threatening his superiors there, according to police reports.

In June 2013, the police were summoned to the residence of Kelley in New Braunfels for the rape case and investigated for three months, Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds said. But the department apparently dropped the investigation after they believed Kelley had moved to Colorado. Reynolds said the case was inactive at that point.

Under Pentagon rules, information on members of the military who are convicted of crimes such as assault must be reported to the FBI’s Division of Criminal Justice Investigative Services for inclusion in the National Center for Criminal Justice database. Criminal Information.

For unspecified reasons, the Air Force did not provide the information on Kelley.

Lawyers for the survivors and relatives of the dead had requested $418 million, while the Justice Department had proposed $31.8 million.

The Justice Department, the Air Force and legal representatives for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Among the nearly 80 plaintiffs are relatives of the people who were found, 21 survivors and their relatives. The official report of the authorities is of 26 deaths, since one of the 25 people killed was pregnant.

_____________________________

• The threats of anti-vaccines to a COVID-19 patient who they accuse of being an actor who faked the disease
• He was kidnapped at 16 and released at 58: the story of the man who spent his entire life in captivity
• Jacinda Ardern postpones her wedding due to coronavirus outbreak in New Zealand
• Woman refused to wear a mask on Miami-London flight; the pilot’s response will surprise you
• They run over a reporter in full live broadcast: “my whole life passed before my eyes”

Source: Elcomercio

Deshawn