Alwaght- An ex-US Air Force officer walked into a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Sunday morning and opened fire, leaving at least 27 worshippers dead and many more injured.
The number of the dead at the First Baptist church, in the small town 30 miles south-east of San Antonio, made the terrorist attack the worst mass shooting in modern Texas history and one of the worst such gun rampages in recent years. The lone shooter was found dead after he was chased by locals and police across county lines.
In a Sunday evening press conference, Texas governor Greg Abbott said: “There are so many families who have lost family members, and it occurred in a church, in a place of worship. That’s where these people were mown down. We mourn their loss.”
Children were said to be among the victims of the terror attack. Twenty-four others were also injured in the shooting. A pregnant woman and the church pastor’s 14-year-old daughter were among the victims, ranging from 5 to 72 years of age.
The terrorists was identified by the Pentagon as a former US Air Force member, named Devin Patrick Kelley.
Kelley lived in New Braunfels, Texas, and had served in the Air Force at a base in New Mexico.
He was clad in all black, had a ballistic vest strapped to his chest and carried a military-style rifle in his hands.
“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.
The terrorist attack came only five weeks removed from the Las Vegas massacre of Oct. 1 that left 58 dead.
Sunday's mass shooting surpassed Texas’ previous deadliest, a 1991 massacre in Killeen that left 23 dead. The top five deadliest shootings in modern American history have now all come in the past 10 years.
