generalspeaking

Due Diligence of Investigative Authorities

"What you typically see in active shooter attackers is an avenger-type mentality."
"They're people who believe they've been wronged in some way. They get angrier and angrier and they plan the attack as a way to get people to recognize their issue."
Peter Blair, criminal justice professor, Texas State University

"Our church was not comprised of members or parishioners. We were a very close family."
"Now most of our church family is gone."
Sherri Pomeroy, wife of pastor Frank Pomeroy, First Baptist Church

"The gentleman that was with me got out, rested his rifle on my [truck] hood and kept it aimed at him [the killer], telling him to get out [of his vehicle], get out. There was no movement, there was none of that. I just know his brake lights were going on and off, so he might have been unconscious from the crash or something like that, I'm not sure."
Johnnie Langendorff, witness

"Inside the church, the deceased actually ranged from 18 months to 77 years of age."
"This was not racially motivated, it wasn't over religious beliefs."
Freeman Martin, regional director, Texas Department of Public Safety

Sutherland Springs church shooting -- CNN

The name of Devin Patrick Kelley will have found a place in the annals of mass slaughter, quite a finale for a man of 26 who managed to amass a series of distinguishing behavioral notices in his young life, reflecting the life in fact, of one of society's psychopaths whom the criminal justice system failed to apprehend adequately given his penchant for violence and the threat his character traits posed for the future. But then, we cannot second-guess events, nor straiten the freedom of people's right to liberty and free agency of opportunity. Can we?

"Federal law prohibited him from buying or possessing firearms after this conviction", stated Ann Stefanek, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Air Force. Simply because Devin Patrick Kelley had been convicted by court-martial on two charges of domestic assault leading to his being released in 2014 with a bad-conduct discharge after he had served a 12-month confinement sentence for assaulting his wife and stepson. Unfortunately, there was a failure to notify the FBI by the Air Force and thus there was no preventive action taken when the man purchased his weapons.

A man who was imprisoned for a year was nonetheless able to procure guns, and pass state background checks, routine for accessing employment. In the small town close to San Antonio, Texas, 26 people attending Sunday morning First Baptist Church services in Sutherland Springs died, and another 20 parishioners were severely injured when this man shot a barrage of bullets from an assault-type rifle, walking up the right-hand row of seated worshippers, then turning at the alter to walk up the left-hand side, shooting all the while.

As the wife of the pastor, Sherri Pomeroy said, these were all family. In fact, some families lost three generations in the shooting slaughter; parents, children, grandchildren. And the reason they died was also related to family issues. The killer, a violent, abusive man prone to terrorizing his first wife and then his second wife, his son, dogs, anyone it seems, felt aggravated that his current mother-in-law was interfering in his life; possibly by suggesting to him that it is uncivilized to beat one's wife and child.

This man with the "unarmed private security licence", who had failed in an effort to obtain a permit that would give him the legal right to carry a concealed weapon, held, briefly, a few other jobs. As an unarmed night security guard where he passed a Texas Department of Public Safety criminal background check, and another background check allowing him to work for a Texas grocery chain. Both areas of employment petered out after a few months' duration, when he was recognized as "not a good fit" for the jobs involved.

"The man who killed more than 20 people at a small Texas church escaped from a mental health facility five years ago after sneaking guns onto an Air Force base and making threats against commanders, according to a police report."

"Devin Patrick Kelley's June 2012 escape from Peak Behavioral Health Systems in New Mexico occurred months after he was accused of abusing his ex-wife and her child, according to an El Paso Police Department report obtained by CNN affiliate KVIA on Tuesday."

"Kelley was picked up after the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, facility listed him as missing. The documents said officers had been warned that Kelley was a danger to himself and others and that he had sneaked firearms onto Holloman Air Force Base, where he had reportedly threatened his commanders."

CNN

Labels: Mass Shooting, Psychopathy, Texas, United States

posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, November 07, 2017