Texas shooting: Air Force ‘failed’ on gunman history

The United States Air Force is investigating how it failed to enter details of Texas shooter Devin Kelley’s court martial into a national database, allowing the gunman to purchase firearms.

“Initial information indicates that [Devin] Kelley's domestic violence offence was not entered into the National Criminal Information Centre database by the Holloman Air Force Base Office of Special Investigations,” the Air Force said in a statement.

“Kelley should have been barred from purchasing firearms and body armour because of his domestic violence conviction in 2014 while serving at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico,” the Washington Post says.

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The revelation comes as further details emerge of the circumstances surrounding the worst mass shooting in the history of Texas.

Officials have revealed that a dispute between Kelley and his mother-in-law may have been the motivating factor behind the shooting.

“Kelley was involved in a domestic dispute with the family of Danielle Shields, a woman he married in 2014, and the situation had flared up,” the ABC reports.

Officials have also revealed further details of how Kelley’s deadly rampage was brought to an end.

Local man Stephen Willeford, a former National Rifle Association instructor, was alerted to the shooting by his daughter, prompting the man to arm himself and investigate, The Guardian says.

“I kept hearing the shots, one after another, very rapid shots – just ‘Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!’ – and I knew every one of those shots represented someone, that it was aimed at someone, that they weren’t just random shots,” Willeford said.

Kelley was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in his vehicle, following a short chase. He had been shot and wounded in the leg and abdomen, and had reportedly telephoned his father during the chase, before ending his own life.