Texas shooting suspect was court-martialed for assault on spouse and child
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A military spokesperson confirmed Sunday night that Devin Patrick Kelley, the 26-year-old man identified as the shooter who killed at least 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday, was dishonorably discharged from the Air Force in 2014, after he was court-martialed for assault.
In 2010, he started working in logistics readiness at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, Ann Stefanek, chief of media operations for the Air Force, said in a statement. In 2012, he was court-martialed for two counts of assault on his spouse and on their child, and was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in custody and received a bad conduct discharge.
Under federal law, Kelley's dishonorable discharge prohibited him from purchasing a firearm, the Los Angeles Times reports, and officials said they do not know how he obtained the multiple weapons they found in his car after the shooting.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
