Perpetrator: Defender: On November 5, 2017, Devin Kelley shot and killed 26 people and wounded 22 others at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, United States.

[11] Kelley was then confronted by and traded fire with Stephen Willeford, a local resident and former firearms instructor[12] who was armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

Willeford had taken cover behind a truck across the street from the church and shot Kelley twice, once in the leg and once in the upper left torso under his tactical gear.

[13][14][15] Kelley, who had dropped his rifle during the initial firefight with Willeford, fired back with a handgun before fleeing in his Ford Explorer.

[19] During the chase, Kelley called his wife and spoke to her and his parents, informing them "I just shot up the Sutherland Springs church",[20] and telling his father that he was injured and thought that he would not survive.

[32] The Texas Rangers led the investigation, with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) assisting.

In response, Kelley made death threats against the superior officers who charged him, and he was caught sneaking firearms onto Holloman Air Force Base.

[42] In June 2012, Kelley escaped from Peak Behavioral Health Services but was soon apprehended ten miles away at a bus terminal in El Paso, Texas.

While there, he had expressed a desire for "some kind of retribution to his chain of command" and was discovered to have used computers to order "weapons and tactical gear to a P.O.

[36] He had previously worked as an unarmed security guard at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark and Resort in New Braunfels, but was fired after less than six weeks on the job.

[36] While he was working at The Summit Vacation and RV Resort, a family who encountered him commented on how "creepy" Kelley had seemed; one member described, "He seemed angry.

[44] According to a former Air Force colleague who temporarily got reacquainted with him online, Kelley claimed he would buy dogs and other animals and use them for "target practice".

[15][59] Kelley attended the First Baptist Church in Kingsville, Texas, from May to June 2014 and volunteered as a helper for one day of Vacation Bible School.

[61][62][39] In 2012, Kelley purchased two guns (a European American Armory Windicator .38-caliber revolver and a 9mm SIG Sauer P250 pistol) from the HAFB Base Exchange.

[65] Kelley purchased the semi-automatic rifle used in the shooting from an Academy Sports + Outdoors store in San Antonio on April 7, 2016.

"[72][73] One day after the shooting, the Air Force said it had "launched a review of how the service handled the criminal records of former Airman Devin P. Kelley following his 2012 domestic violence conviction".

[72][71] Three days after the shooting, Vice President Mike Pence visited the crime scene, and said, "We will find why this information was not properly recorded in 2012, and we will work with leaders in Congress to ensure that this never happens again.

[75] In 2021, U.S. district judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled that the federal government's negligence was mostly responsible for the shooting and that it was "jointly and severally liable for the damages that may be awarded.

[76] The shooting brought attention to gaps in reporting to the federal background-check system intended to ban convicted domestic abusers, such as Kelley, from purchasing guns.

Since 1996, the Lautenberg Amendment has prohibited the sale of firearms to those convicted of domestic abuse offenses, even misdemeanors, but gaps in reporting continue to exist.

The next day, Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX), whose district, Texas 28th, includes Sutherland Springs, introduced a version in the House of Representatives (H. R. 4434).

Cuellar's bill was superseded by H. R. 4477, introduced by Congressman John Culberson (R-TX), representing Texas' 7th District, including western Houston and Harris County.

A week later, Cornyn met with survivors and victims' families at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs to discuss details of the legislation.

"[80][81] After the shooting, Trump issued a presidential proclamation honoring the victims[82] and ordered the United States flag at half-staff at the White House and all public and military sites until the sunset of November 9.

[85] Paxton was criticized by Manny Garcia, the Texas Democratic Party's deputy executive director, who said that "Texans deserve more from their chief law enforcement official.

"[86] Fake news websites and far-right agitators promoted misleading and deceptive stories along with conspiracy theories about the incident.

[88] Democratic U.S. Representative Vicente González twice incorrectly named the shooter as Sam Hyde, a comedian who is often jokingly referred to as the perpetrator of various terrorist attacks and mass shootings on social media.

According to The Washington Post, a group of women who said they knew the victims were overheard discussing the shooting as a false flag operation designed to manipulate the public towards some nefarious end.

[87] The misinformation mirrored similar conspiracy theories of the Las Vegas shooting a few weeks earlier, in which perpetrator Stephen Paddock was falsely linked to leftist and Islamist groups.

[88] In 2018, two conspiracy theorists, Jodi Mann and Robert Ussery, were arrested after accosting the church's pastor, whose daughter was killed in the shooting.