The suspected gunman in a Texas church mass shooting on Sunday has been identified as Devin Kelley from New Braunfels, a Texas native in his mid-20s, who was given a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force, federal and state law enforcement sources confirmed.
At least 26 people were killed and 20 injured after the shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.
Here's what we know about the suspected mass murderer, based on US media reports:
● The suspect walked into a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and opened fire, leaving multiple people dead, Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt told local media.
● Soon after the shooting, the suspect crashed his vehicle near the border of neighbouing Guadalupe County and was found dead inside with a cache of weapons.
● Air Force officials confirmed to ABC News he served in the US Air Force from 2010 until he was discharged.
@AFP Graphic looking at weapons used in the biggest US mass shootings of the past five years pic.twitter.com/pYHVD7bdOU
— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 6, 2017
● In 2012, Kelley was court martialed for two counts of assault on his spouse and assault on their child.
● He received a bad conduct discharge, confinement for a year and a reduction to the grade of E-1.
● A source told ABC News Kelley spent a year in the brig at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico and got out in 2013 for the 2012 offenses.
● He was dressed in all black with tactical-type gear and was wearing a ballistic vest.
● He was at a Valero gas station before he drove across the street to the church, exited his vehicle and opened fire, according to officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
● Kelley moved to the right side of the church and continued to fire, before he entered the church and shot people inside.
● As he exited the church, a local resident grabbed his rifle and "engaged" the suspect. The suspect dropped what was described as a Ruger AR assault-type rifle and fled from the church.
● Authorities said several spent magazines were found at the scene.
● The local citizen pursued the suspect and when law enforcement responded, the suspect crashed and was found deceased in his vehicle.
● It was not immediately clear whether he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound or if he was shot by the local resident.
● Multiple weapons were found in the vehicle, and the vehicle was being processed by special operations group bomb techs.
● Authorities are searching his social media accounts and said that on Facebook in recent days, he showed off what appeared to be an AR-15-style gun.
● A law-enforcement source said that agents are searching the alleged shooter's home for explosives.
ABOUT THE SMALL TEXAS TOWN
● Sutherland Springs, where the attack took place, has two gas stations, one post office and a few hundred residents. It does not have its own police station.
● According to the Handbook of Texas, the town's population was 362 in 2000.
● Many residents said their town is safe, the people are friendly, and that what happened was unthinkable.
● It is a heavily Christian community set amid farmlands and rolling hills about 40 miles (65 km) east of San Antonio, Texas.
● It does not have its own police force, and much of its social activity is centered on its two churches.
● They include the modest, white-painted First Baptist Church, where a lone gunman burst in brandishing an assault rifle during a Sunday service and killed at least 26 parishioners.
● Farmers and ranchers moved in and the area still remains heavily dependent on agriculture.
● Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt said at a news conference that police had yet to establish a motive. Small town America is not immune from mass shootings.
● The massacre came only about a month after the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history when a gunman killed 58 people at an outdoor country music concert in Las Vegas.
● The killings have stoked a simmering national debate about how easy access to firearms contributes to the carnage.
