At least 26 killed in mass shooting at Texas church

hm1996

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Thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families.


Quote:
At least 26 killed in mass shooting at Texas church

By Nicole Darrah | Fox News

At least 26 people were killed and 20 wounded in Texas after a gunman dressed in tactical gear opened fire at a church outside San Antonio on Sunday, investigators confirmed.

Multiple sources speaking to Fox News identified the gunman as 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley. The mass shooting unfolded around 11:30 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio.

Investigators said at a news conference Sunday evening that the victims ranged in age from 5 to 72 years old. One official said about 20 people were hospitalized with injuries ranging from minor to "very severe."

Emergency personnel respond to a fatal shooting at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017. (KSAT via AP)

Sunday's massacre is the deadliest church shooting in modern U.S. history. It is also, according to Gov. Greg Abbott, the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history.

A possible motive was unclear. Kelley lived in a suburb of San Antonio and didn't appear to be linked to organized terrorist groups, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The official said investigators were looking at social media posts Kelley may have made in the days before Sunday's attack, including one that appeared to show a semiautomatic weapon.

A spokesperson with the U.S. Air Force confirmed to Fox News that Kelley served in the military branch at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until a bad conduct discharge.

Texas Attorney General: Church Shooting Is 'Going to Happen Again'

He was court-martialed in 2014 for assaulting his wife and child, and when he was discharged received 12 months of confinement and a reduction in military rank.

"It is horrible," Wilson County Commissioner Larry Wiley told Fox News of the massacre. "It appears someone walked in and started shooting."

Around 11:20 a.m., Kelley arrived at a Valero gas station across from the First Baptist Church dressed in black tactical gear and a ballistic vest. He crossed the street and started firing a Ruger AR rifle at the church, officials said. He entered the building and kept shooting.

He was confronted by an armed nearby resident who chased after him. Kelley was later found dead, roughly five miles away in Guadalupe County, according to Wiley. It's unclear whether Kelley was killed by police or the armed resident, or from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"We have accepted a multiple number of patients from the shooting," Megan Posey, a spokeswoman for Connally Memorial Medical Center in Floresville, 15 miles from the church, told Fox News.

Some victims were transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, KSAT reported.

Officials said 23 people were found deceased in First Baptist Church, while two were found dead outside. One person who was transported to a hospital later died.

One of those killed was 14-year-old Annabelle Pomeroy, the church pastor's daughter.

The FBI is investigating the shooting, in addition to multiple other agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The San Antonio Express-News reported police were checking the gunman's home for explosives following the shooting.

The church's layout would've made it difficult for churchgoers to flee a shooter who came through the front door, according to a congregant attending a vigil at the church Sunday night.

The church was described as having only small exits on the side and in the back, according to Hunter Green. He said if a gunman came through the front door, people "wouldn't have had anywhere to go."

Neighbors of Kelley's told The Associated Press they heard gunfire coming from his direction in recent days.

"It's really loud," 16-year-old Ryan Albers said. "It was someone using automatic weapon fire."

Another neighbor, who argued hearing gunfire in the area is not uncommon, said they had heard gunfire coming from across the street, but couldn't be sure if it was from Kelley's property.

Attorney General Paxton told Fox News that "people never think" a shooting like this can "happen in their communities."

"In a small town ... I can imagine that these people are devastated. And everyone in the community is going to ... have some type of close relationship" to those either killed or injured at the First Baptist Church. He added it's "hard to justify why anyone would do this."

At least 26 people are dead in the Sutherland Springs, Texas church massacre. Here is a look back at the deadliest church shootings in U.S. history.
Video


Texas church massacre: Timeline of US church shootings

"This is horrific for our tiny little tight-knit town," Alena Berlanga, who lives 10 minutes outside of Sutherland Springs told The Associated Press. "Everybody's going to be affected and everybody knows someone who's affected."

President Trump, speaking from Tokyo during his trip to Asia, called the shooting an "act of evil," and added: "Through the tears and through the sadness, we stand strong."

Earlier, he tweeted: "May God be w/ the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI & law enforcement are on the scene. I am monitoring the situation from Japan."

Gov. Abbott said in a statement that "While the details of this horrific act are still under investigation, Cecilia and I want to send our sincerest thoughts and prayers to all those who have been affected by this evil act."

"I want to thank law enforcement for their response and ask that all Texans pray for the Sutherland Springs community during this time of mourning and loss," the statement read.

Sutherland Springs has a population of about 400 residents.

Sunday's shooting comes just over a month after 58 people were killed and hundreds injured on Oct. 1 after a gunman opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas.

Fox News' Robert Gearty, Jake Gibson, Rick Leventhal, Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/05/mass-shooting-reported-at-texas-sutherland-springs-church.html

Regards,
hm
 
Quote:
'Hero' neighbor got his rifle, shot at Texas church gunman
New York Post

A concerned neighbor who heard the Texas church massacre unfolding on Sunday went and grabbed his rifle and tried to stop it — opening fire on the shooter and chasing him down in a stranger’s truck, a report says.

The man, who has not been publicly named, is being hailed online as a “hero” after state officials described his actions during a press conference.

A resident told the local ABC affiliate KSAT that he teamed up with her boyfriend and the two gave chase for several minutes inside his truck before the alleged gunman, Devin Kelley, eventually crashed the car he was in.

Authorities said the armed neighbor may have saved countless lives by opening fire on Kelley and forcing him to flee the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs during his 11:30 a.m. massacre.

The young man reportedly had several guns inside his vehicle and was found dead inside. It’s unclear, though, if he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound of if he was shot by the neighbor.

Read more from the New York Post.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/05/hero-neighbor-got-his-rifle-shot-at-texas-church-gunman.html

Regards,
hm
 
What could misfire in someone's mind that would make it a logical decision to go into a church and open fire. 5 year old kid you evil bastard.
 
Originally Posted By: Infidel 762What could misfire in someone's mind that would make it a logical decision to go into a church and open fire. 5 year old kid you evil bastard.

News conference just finished said:
Youngest deceased victim was 18 months old, and oldest was 77 years old.
10 victims still in critical condition.
Shooter’s mother-in-law was a member of the church and domestic violence appears to be the motive. She had received threats from the shooter.
No religious motivation.
All of the bodies have now been removed from the church.

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an atheist attacks a church after possibly threatening mother-in-law or ex-mother-in-law and they want us to believe theres no religious motivation?


not buying those cookies - thats as stale as Hillary's presidential ambitions.

if he was just going after the family and there was no religious motivation - he would have done so at their home(s) , not at their church and its other members as well as those folks.
 
I can't hardly imagine how that community will ever recover.

I can't imagine either why people would think that someone with the mind this man had would just go away and do nothing if only he had not had a gun.

When will people stop grasping at easy answers and face the truth.How many laws were broken here. Why would more laws seem like the answer.

It's taking the easy way out to blame the gun. What if he had used a glass jug of gas and a Zippo.
It's what he did that counts not how he did it.As long as the means and not the act that gets attention nothing will get better.

I have not heard silly talk coming from the local Texas people. They know.

Anything that might be said to try and extend sympathy for the suffering would just be to little.
Somehow I hope they can know that the heart of the country breaks for them.
 
I think the media has to stop sensationalizing these events. I'm sure there's some type of copycat phenomenon here that's occurring. These phycotic losers are competing for body counts and the media is keeping score for them. At the very least, they should stop showing their faces and names.. the notoriety is what they want..just my opinion
 
Originally Posted By: swampwalkerI think the media has to stop sensationalizing these events. I'm sure there's some type of copycat phenomenon here that's occurring. These phycotic losers are competing for body counts and the media is keeping score for them. At the very least, they should stop showing their faces and names.. the notoriety is what they want..just my opinion

well none of that is going to happen. never.
 
Originally Posted By: SlickerThanSnotOriginally Posted By: swampwalkerI think the media has to stop sensationalizing these events. I'm sure there's some type of copycat phenomenon here that's occurring. These phycotic losers are competing for body counts and the media is keeping score for them. At the very least, they should stop showing their faces and names.. the notoriety is what they want..just my opinion

well none of that is going to happen. never.

You’re exactly right.
Did you see Fox News this evening?

They had a contributor who was saying exactly what you are saying. The instant they came back to the Fox News feed the perp’s face came up full screen.

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Quote:Air Force Error
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex. — A day after a gunman massacred parishioners in a small Texas church, the Air Force admitted on Monday that it had failed to enter the man’s domestic violence court-martial into a federal database that could have blocked him from buying the rifle he used to kill 26 people.


But we need more gun laws. Just ask any Democrat!
cursing.gif


Regards,
hm
 
Our society as a whole is declining. 1966 Charles Whitman opened fire, committed a mass shooting that could be seen as an isolated incident. Today mass shootings seem less isolated and we are becoming desensitized to the shock value, unless it happens in your area. Today the drugs are more potent, religion is suppressed, our wars have no meaning, technology leads masses to isolation and our priorities as a whole are effed up. American society has a progressive sickness and these mass shootings are but a symptom of the disease.

Blaming guns or any one particular group is a cop out... what is different with our society today when compared to the 1950's. This was not normal back then...
 
Originally Posted By: Infidel 762 Blaming guns or any one particular group is a cop out... what is different with our society today when compared to the 1950's. This was not normal back then...

It’s a cop out to not at least even look in to the simple fact that the style of gun may be playing at least a small part in this, or at least can we admit that these mass shooters are attracted to a certain style of weapon?
 
Originally Posted By: Bad DawgOriginally Posted By: Infidel 762 Blaming guns or any one particular group is a cop out... what is different with our society today when compared to the 1950's. This was not normal back then...

It’s a cop out to not at least even look in to the simple fact that the style of gun may be playing at least a small part in this, or at least can we admit that these mass shooters are attracted to a certain style of weapon?

you think we should ban AR-15s?
 
I never once mentioned that. The fact of the matter is mass shooters are using semi-auto handguns and ar style rifles more than any other type of gun. It’s a fact that needs to be brought to attention and discussed.

A cigarette smoker does not get to smudge the facts and state cigarettes do not cause cancer just because he or she smokes. The fact remains that cigarette smoking is linked to cancer.
 
Quote:mass shooters are using semi-auto handguns and ar style rifles more than any other type of gun. It’s a fact that needs to be brought to attention and discussed.


it is discussed every time something happens. the gun grabbers love to bring it to attention and discuss it.

do you have a solution you would like to suggest?
 
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