A gunman wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a military-style rifle opened fire on parishioners at a Sunday morning service at a small Baptist church in rural Texas. The attack killed at least 26 people and turned the tiny town of Sutherland Springs into the scene of the country’s latest mass shooting.
The gunman was identified by the Texas Department of Public Safety as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26. Kelley, who lived in New Braunfels, Texas, died shortly after the attack. Authorities said on Monday that it looked like Kelley had killed himself.
Kelley started firing at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs not long after the Sunday morning service began at 11 a.m., officials said. He was armed with a Ruger military-style rifle, and within minutes, many of those inside the small church were either dead or wounded. The victims ranged in age from 5 to 72, and among the dead were several children, a pregnant woman, and the pastor’s 14-year-old daughter. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history. At least 20 more were wounded.
“It’s something we all say does not happen in small communities, although we found out today it does,” said Joe Tackitt, the sheriff of Wilson County, which includes Sutherland Springs.
Speaking at a news conference in Japan, the first stop on his tour of Asia, President Trump called the shooting a “mental health problem at the highest level” and not “a guns situation,” adding the gunman was a “very deranged individual.” But the shooting is likely to fuel a debate in Washington over gun control that was already heating up in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Las Vegas last month that killed 58 people.
The motive for the attack was not yet clear.