Judge Holds US Govt 60% Responsible For Church Shooting

A federal judge has found the United States government is 60% responsible for the mass shooting that took place at a rural Texas church in 2017.

On November 5, former Air Force airman Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, walked into the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church where he opened fire, killing 26 churchgoers ranging from age five to 72. Twenty-two other individuals were injured during the rampage. Following the shooting, Kelley fled the scene and took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he crashed the vehicle he fled away in.

Last Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled that the U.S. Government bore “significant responsibility” for the mass shooting because it did not display care after failing to enter Kelley’s guilty plea to domestic violence charges into a database that is used for background checks when an individual tries to purchase firearms.

Rodriguez wrote in his opinion, "The Court concludes that the Government failed to exercise reasonable care in its undertaking to submit criminal history to the FBI. The Government's failure to exercise reasonable care increased the risk of physical harm to the general public, including Plaintiffs. And its failure proximately caused the deaths and injuries of Plaintiffs at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church on November 5, 2017."

In 2012, Kelley was court-martialed on two assault charges after he had pleaded guilty to domestic violence. He was charged for assaulting his first wife and fracturing the skull of his baby stepson. Following his conviction, Kelley was confined for one year and his airman rank was reduced to basic status.

After he was found guilty, the Air Force should have entered Kelley’s name into the National Criminal Information Center, a federal database that prevents domestic violence aggressors from gaining access to firearms. But according to a spokeswoman for the Air Force, Anne Stefanek, the Special Investigations Office failed to enter in Kelley’s name.

As per the 1996 Lautenberg Amendment, this database would have flagged an individual who was convicted of domestic violence if they tried to purchase a firearm. In failing to enter Kelley’s information into the database, Judge Rodriguez explained that the U.S. Government was to blame.

In the 99-page opinion, Rodriguez wrote, "Had the government done its job and properly reported Kelley's information into the background check system, (it) is more likely than not that Kelley would have been deterred from carrying out the church shooting.”

Tom Jacob, who represents some of the plaintiffs, described the ruling as a "huge step" for families who "endured so much loss and then had to endure their government trying to avoid responsibility."

Rodriguez went on to order government lawyers to bring forward a proposed plan to bring individual damages cases to trial.