The U.S. Air Force is partially responsible for the 2017 mass shooting at a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church that left 26 people dead, a federal judge ruled.
Twenty-five people died but one of the victims had been pregnant. Officials set the death toll at 26, The Associated Press reported.
The reason, according to Western District of Texas U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez, was that the Air Force did not enter Airman Kevin Kelley’s criminal history into a federal database used for gun purchase background checks, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Kelley killed himself after the shooting.
He had served almost five years in the military before being discharged in 2014 for bad conduct, the AP reported. Kelley had been convicted of assaulting his former wife and stepson. The boy had a cracked skull, the AP reported.
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The Air Force said that if the conviction had been entered in the FBI database, it could have prevented Kelley from buying guns from licensed dealers. He also would not been allowed to own body armor, the AP reported.
Rodriguez’s ruling came Wednesday as part of a civil lawsuit filed by the survivors of the First Baptist Church shooting and family members of those who were killed against the government, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The judge said that the Air Force was responsible for 60% of the shooting. He has ordered that a trial plan be set within 15 days for monetary damages in the case.
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