The Air Force launched an internal review into why it failed to provide key information to the FBI that should have prevented the attacker from purchasing firearms. While serving in the Air Force, the gunman — Devin Patrick Kelley, 26 — was convicted by a general court-martial on two charges of domestic assault.
The Air Force said his offense was not entered into a national database, which meant he was able to pass background checks to purchase weapons. Kelley was convicted on charges of assaulting his then-wife and stepson and served 12 months in confinement before being released in 2014 with a bad-conduct discharge.
“Federal law prohibited him from buying or possessing firearms after this conviction,” Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman, said in a statement.
In the aftermath of Sunday’s attack, investigators had questioned how Kelley, who spent a year behind bars, was able to purchase guns and pass state background checks for jobs. The Air Force’s oversight appeared to allow Kelley’s gun purchases to proceed despite a law meant to keep him from obtaining firearms.
While authorities have not publicly identified a motive for the attack, they emphasized that the shooting did not appear to be fueled by racial or religious issues, as has been the case with other rampages at U.S. houses of worship. Instead, they pointed to the gunman’s issues with his relatives, saying that Kelley had been sending “threatening texts” to his mother-in-law, who was not at the First Baptist Church when he opened fire on the congregation Sunday morning.