Devin Patrick Kelley was the 26-year-old man who stormed the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs in Texas and ruthlessly gunned down 26 people and injured another 24. He walked into the church wearing all black tactical gear, a ski mask and also a military-style assault rifle.
He was later shot by a local man and died shortly after a car chase.
At the time of writing, it is unclear whether he committed suicide or was killed by the local man’s gunshot wounds.
According to law enforcement, Devin walked into the church dressed in all-black tactical gear with a ballistics belt and an assault rifle. He started firing randomly into the crowd.
He fired round after round into the crowd of innocent churchgoers until a local 55-year-old man by the name of Stephen Willeford shot at him with his rifle. The bullet hit Devin on the side in between his body armor.
Devin dropped his rifle as he was shot, grabbed a hostage and rushed into his SUV in order to flee the scene. But another local resident, Johnnie Langendorff, saw the shooting go down, and along with Stephen, chased the shooter down in his truck.
It was near the 307 and 539 as the car approached a sharp turn when Devin lost control of his vehicle and swerved off the road. When the two men found him he was already dead, apparently due to the blood loss from the gunshot wound.
Police discovered Devin dead in the vehicle, the hostage was safe, and they also found multiple weapons as well as explosives in his car.
Devin had just recently posted a picture of his AR-15 gun onto his Facebook page with the caption ‘she’s a bad b***h.’
According to CNN, Devin purchased that particular rifle in April last year at an Academy Sports and Outdoors store in San Antonio.
His LinkedIn profile reveals that he joined the United States Air Force in 2009 after graduating from New Braunfels High School. He was later court-martialed in 2012 and discharged in 2014.
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A spokeswoman for the Air Force, Ann Stefanek, said that Devin was court-martialed for one count of assault on his spouse and another count of assault on his child.
Local law enforcement say that Devin was unknown to them and had a relatively clean criminal record. He only had a few traffic offenses in the recent years.
But it appears that his former classmates have a different opinion of him. Patrick Boyce, who went to high school with Devin, said: ‘he had a kid or two, fairly normal, but kinda quiet and lately seemed depressed. He was the first atheist I met. He went to Air Force after high school, got discharged but I don’t know why.’
Another acquaintance by the name of Nina Rose Nava said: ‘he was always talking about how people who believe in God were stupid and trying to preach his atheism.’ She continued: ‘He was an outcast but not a loner. He was popular among other outcasts. I haven’t spoken to him since high school.’
