Federal Judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled the Air Force was 60% responsible for the mass shooting at a church in Texas in 2017 after failing to report gunman David Kelley’s domestic abuse record to the FBI.
July 7 (UPI) — A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the U.S. Air Force was largely responsible for the November 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Judge Xavier Rodriguez said the Air Force « proximately caused the deaths and injuries » of the shooting victims as it failed to alert the FBI that gunman Devin Kelley could not legally purchase a firearm after he was investigated and court-martialed for assaulting his then-wife and her stepson on an Air Force base. « The court concludes that the government failed to exercise reasonable care in its undertaking to submit criminal history to the FBI, » Rodriguez wrote in the civil case brought by families of the victims. « The government’s failure to exercise reasonable care increased the risk of physical harm to the general public, including plaintiffs.
