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Seven years later: Sutherland Springs still reeling from one of the deadliest shootings in Texas

26 people were killed in the church shooting

FILE - (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) (Eric Gay, Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas – Seven years ago, Texas suffered the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history.

On Nov. 5, 2017, Devin Kelley, a former U.S. Air Force serviceman, walked into the First Baptist Church and opened fire on the churchgoers during their Sunday service. He fired roughly 450 rounds, killing 26 people and injuring dozens more before taking his own life.

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The victims ranged in age from a baby who died in the womb to a 77-year-old man.

Following the tragic shooting

In August of this year, the church was torn down.

A judge cleared the way in July for the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs to demolish the sanctuary where the mass shooting took place, which had been kept as a memorial. Church members voted in 2021 to tear it down, but some families in the community of fewer than 1,000 people filed a lawsuit, hoping for a new vote on the building’s fate.

In July 2021, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Air Force was mostly responsible for the massacre. The judge said the Air Force failed to submit Kelley’s criminal history into a database, which should have prevented him from purchasing firearms.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio wrote in a ruling that the Air Force was “60% responsible” for the deadly shooting.

“The trial conclusively established that no other individual — not even Kelley’s own parents or partners — knew as much as the United States about the violence that Devin Kelley had threatened to commit and was capable of committing,” Rodriguez wrote.

Kelley had served nearly five years in the Air Force before being discharged in 2014 for bad conduct after being convicted of assaulting a former wife and stepson, cracking the child’s skull. The Air Force has publicly acknowledged that the felony conviction for domestic violence, had it been put into the FBI database, could have prevented Kelley from buying guns from licensed firearms dealers and from possessing body armor.

Rodriguez said had the government done its job and entered Kelley’s history into the database, “it is more likely than not that Kelley would have been deterred from carrying out the Church shooting.”

Authorities said Kelley fired at least 450 rounds at helpless worshippers who tried to take cover in the pews. As he left the small wood-frame church, Kelley was confronted by an armed resident who had grabbed his own rifle and exchanged fire with him.

Kelley fled as two Sutherland Springs residents gave chase and died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after losing control of his vehicle and crashing.

In April 2023, the Justice Department announced a tentative $144 million settlement with families and victims of the mass shooting.

Names of Sutherland Springs victims:

Robert Scott Marshall, 56

Karen Sue Marshall, 56

Keith Allen Braden, 62

Tara E. McNulty, 33

Annabelle Renae Pomeroy, 14

Peggy Lynn Warden, 56

Dennis Neil Johnson, Sr., 77

Sara Johns Johnson, 68

Lula Woicinski White, 71

Joann Lookingbill Ward, 30

Brooke Bryanne Ward, 5

Robert Michael Corrigan, 51

Shani Louise Corrigan, 51

Therese Sagan Rodriguez, 66

Ricardo Cardona Rodriguez, 64

Haley Krueger, 16

Emily Garcia, 7

Emily Rose Hill, 11

Gregory Lynn Hill, 13

Megan Gail Hill, 9

Marc Daniel Holcombe, 36

Noah Holcombe, 1

Karla Plain Holcombe, 23

John Bryan Holcombe, 60

Crystal Marie Holcombe, 36, and her unborn baby were killed.


Find more Sutherland Springs coverage on KSAT.com here


About the Authors
Halee Powers headshot

Halee Powers is a KSAT producer primarily focused on digital newscasts and events.

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