KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — Police say 26 people are dead and more are wounded after an Air Force Veteran attacked a church congregation with an assault rifle in a small town near San Antonio.
They are still trying to figure out why Devon Patrick Kelly open fire on the 50 people inside the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church late Sunday morning. Among the dead was the Pastor’s 14-year-old daughter and several other children.
Authorities say a civilian with a long gun confronted Kelly as he left the church and reportedly shot at him. Kelly reportedly jumped into his car and fled with the civilian close behind.
Kelly eventually crashed, dead from bullet wound. It’s not known yet whether it was self-inflicted or he had been shot by the civilian.
The investigation will continue into the massacre at the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, even though the gunman is dead, because there may be things that they can learn to prevent.
Michigan State Police First Lt. Michael Shaw says like the shooting in Las Vegas five weeks ago, they still haven’t figured out what is motivating these lone wolf gunman. He says figuring it out may prevent future massacres.
One thing they have learned is not to wait for the SWAT Team or try to negotiate with the suspect. He says the gunman are intent on killing anyone and everyone they can and fast intervention is the best strategy.
Bishop Paul Bradley, the head of the Kalamazoo Catholic Dioceses issued a statement reacting to the shooting:
“The despicable and merciless attack on people in the most sacred space of a House of God on a Sunday morning in the small Texas town of Sutherland Springs almost defies our ability to comprehend or accept. Approximately 25 people—-men, women and children— were murdered at point blank range, while dozens of others were injured, many of them critically. We are heartbroken and abhor this senseless act of violence. On behalf of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, as a community that knows first-hand the horror of an unwarranted violent attack on innocent lives, we express our solidarity, with the families of those who have lost loved ones, and all those who have been injured and traumatized by the events of this day. We promise you our prayers for God’s mercy for those who have died and God’s healing graces for those who are suffering in any way.”
“As Cardinal DiNardo, the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and as Archbishop of Galveston-Houston in Texas states so beautifully (see USCCB statement), we must realize that “there is a fundamental problem in our society”. However, in addition to the gun violence to which Cardinal DiNardo was referring, there is also a fundamental problem with a widespread failure of more and more people to understand our common dignity as fellow human beings, each of us made in the image and likeness of God, which makes all of us sisters and brothers in the human family. While we pray for an end to violence in all its forms, and as our hearts are united with all our sisters and brothers in Sutherland Springs,Texas on this day of unspeakable loss and sadness, let us also pray that God will help us to be healed of the blindness that keeps us from seeing one another clearly, and from the hard-heartedness that keeps us from treating one another with compassion, respect and dignity.”
