Not about race, religion, or any identity group marker.
A man with a history of serious anger issues got really mad at his family and the whole town, and went into the church to kill as many of them as he could, kids included.
A lone gunman's gruesome assault on a rural church here killed 26 people, wounded 20 more and appears to have stemmed from a domestic dispute, authorities said Monday.
The Texas Department of Public Safety on Monday identified the shooter as Devin Kelley, 26, of New Braunfels.
DPS official Freeman Martin said Kelley's in-laws had previously attended services at the First Baptist Church but were not there during the deadly rampage on Sunday.
Martin said Kelley had sent threatening text messages to his mother-in-law.
"We can tell you that there was a domestic situation going on within this family," Martin said.
"This was not racially motivated; it wasn't over religious beliefs."
Martin said the case was not being investigated as terrorism.
Kelley was court-martialed in 2012 for assaulting his spouse and their child, receiving a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force and 12 months of confinement.
The man who stopped it was repeatedly called a hero by the local sheriff, who credited him with stopping the shooter doing it all over again at another church down the road.
So I guess they won't be charging him with any sort of crime, even if he did in fact shoot a fleeing and possibly unarmed (at that point) man.
And we don't know that he did, and may not ever know.
[Update, authorities now say the shooter was wounded during a shootout with the armed citizen. Getting closer to them admitting it was this citizen who killed him, I would guess.]
Martin said a nearby resident, armed with an assault rifle, confronted Kelley when he fled the church.
He said Kelley then drove off in his Ford Expedition while the resident flagged down a passing pickup and pursued the SUV.
Kelley called his father to say he was shot before crashing his car. Martin said Kelley apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Tackitt said he has spoken with the man who confronted Kelley.
“He doesn’t believe he’s a hero, but I believe he is,” Tackitt said, adding that the man doesn’t want to speak to any media.
“If he hadn’t been there, the guy could have possibly gotten away, you know because, I mean no one would have seen what type of vehicle he was driving,” he said.
“There’s another church two miles down the road over there. He could have stopped in there too.”
Trump Says Texas Church Shooting ‘Isn’t a Guns Situation,’ Blames Mental Health
The Texas governor has suggested maybe providing training so people at churches can use guns to defend themselves in such situations.
Trump has pointed out the role of the armed citizen in dealing with the shooter, in connection with this.
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