Nov. 8 (UPI) — The Texas man who shot and killed 26 churchgoers worshipping at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs attended an event at the building days before the attack.
Devin Patrick Kelley, who law enforcement later found dead, showed up at the church with his children for an annual fall festival five days before the assault, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Others at the event were surprised to see him because they knew Kelley — who had been married twice and may have had issues with his mother-in-law who attended the church — had family troubles.
“And they thought, ‘Oh, this is good. This is progress,'” Tambria Read, a longtime resident of Sutherland Springs who is close with Kelley’s mother-in-law, told the Chronicle.
Read said that churchgoers would have helped Kelley through any difficulties he might have faced.
“This church is very loving, nonjudgmental and if he had had concerns or issues and spoken with the clergy – they’re nonjudgmental,” Read said. “They would have helped him deal with his issues and helped him try to get focused.”
Kelley’s life leading up to the attack was defined by arrests, accusations of harassment and sexual abuse and a string of odd jobs.
He was checked in to a mental health facility in New Mexico in 2012 after he attempted to bring firearms into an Air Force base to carry out death threats against the chain of command. In 2014, he left the Air Force on a bad conduct discharge.
Kelley was later charged with animal cruelty after neighbors saw him beating a husky in Colorado in 2014. It was dismissed about two years later.
