Texas church shooter Devin Kelley's violent past

Devin Kelley - Texas Department of Public Safety

(Devin Kelley - Texas Department of Public Safety)

The shooter who killed 26 people at a Texas church yesterday has been identified as 26-year-old Devin Kelley.

Kelley's past is filled with red flags including a court-martial from the Air Force for assaulting his wife and child, and an animal cruelty arrest. Kelley also had a habit of harassing his ex-girlfriends.

Katy Landry, a former girlfriend of Devin Patrick Kelley, told NBC News:

"He was very sick in the head."

Kelley showed up to the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Sunday armed to the teeth. He was wearing black tactical gear, a ballistics vest, and was carrying what authorities described as an "assault-type rifle."

He killed 26 people. At least a dozen of the victims were children.

Authorities are still trying to figure out Kelley's motivation, but have noted that his mother-in-law attended the church and had been threatened by him.

Kelley's uncle Dave Ivey wrote in a Facebook message:

"I am numb. My family will suffer because of his coward actions. ... I am so sorry for the victims in Texas."

Kelley joined the military after graduating high school in 2009. In 2012 he was court-martialed on two charges of assaulting his first wife and a child.

He spent a year in confinement and was given a bad conduct discharge with a reduce in rank to airman basic.

Records show that he divorced his first wife in 2012 and then remarried in 2014. Authorities say the status of that marriage is not clear, but did say that there was a "domestic situation" with him and his in-laws.

Freeman Martin, regional director of the state Department of Public Safety, said:

"The suspect's mother-in-law attended this church. She has received threatening texts from him."

One of Kelley's ex-girlfriends told NBC News:

"Years after dating me he would try to bribe me to hang out with him. He ended up assaulting me. He would stalk me by repeatedly calling me — even prank calling me, saying really weird stuff. That was another thing about him — he was very sick in the head...He would tell me very sick strange things."

In 2014 Kelley was also arrested on an animal cruelty charge for. A police report from the incident cites the following from a witness' account:

"The suspect then started beating on the dog with both fists, punching it in the head and chest. He could hear the suspect yelling at the dog and while he was striking it, the dog was yelping and whining. The suspect then picked up the dog by the neck into the air and threw it onto the ground and then drug him away to lot 60."

During Sunday's shooting a local resident was able to grab Kelley's gun, forcing him to drop it and run off. The resident pursued Kelley who ended up driving off and crashing. Kelley was found dead.

Martin said:

"The cause and manner of the death...will be determined by a pathologist during the autopsy. However, investigators found evidence at the scene that indicates the subject may have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Click here to read more at NBC News.


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