At Least 26 People Killed In Shooting At Texas Church
At least 26 people were killed in Sunday's church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said at a press conference.
Many others were wounded, said Freeman Martin, a regional director with the Texas Department of Public Safety, with victims ranging in age from 5 to 72 years old.
Among the dead is the 14-year-old daughter of the First Baptist Church's pastor, Frank Pomeroy, according to his wife, Sherri Pomeroy, the girl's mother. The couple were traveling out of state when the shooting occurred.
Authorities have not said what may have motivated the suspected shooter, who was later found dead in his vehicle.
The shooting has devastated the small Texas town east of San Antonio, described as a place where "everybody knows everybody."
Here are the latest developments:
The shooter has been identified as 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley, according to two law enforcement sources who have been briefed on the investigation.
The gunman used a .223 rifle and additional firearms were found in his vehicle, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN.
Kelley was previously a member of the US Air Force and served at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until his discharge, according to Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek. The Air Force did not provide a date or condition of the discharge.
Speaking from Japan, President Donald Trump condemned the shooting as an "act of evil" and called it "horrific."
"We don't know names of any of the victims at this time," said Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt in a press conference Sunday evening. As victims are identified, next of kin will be notified, he said.
The attack
Without naming Kelley, Martin described the shooter in Sunday's press conference as a young white male who was dressed in all-black "tactical-type gear" and wearing a ballistic vest.
Martin said the suspect was seen in a Valero gas station across the street from the church in Sutherland Springs at about 11:20 a.m. local time on Sunday morning.
The suspect left the gas station, crossed the street, exited his vehicle and began firing before he entered the church, Martin said.
As the suspected shooter left the church, a local resident used their own rifle to engage him, Martin said. The shooter then fled the church, while the citizen pursued him.
After a brief chase, law enforcement later found the suspect dead of a gunshot wound inside his vehicle. Authorities said they don't know if the wound was self-inflicted or the result of the resident who fired on the suspect, Martin said.
The shooter was killed after a brief chase north into neighboring Guadalupe County, Guadalupe County Sheriff's Office spokesman Robert Murphy said earlier on Sunday.
The community
Sutherland Springs is in Wilson County, about 30 miles east of San Antonio.
"My heart is broken," Wilson County Commissioner Albert Gamez Jr. told CNN. "We never think where it can happen, and it does happen. It doesn't matter where you're at. In a small community, real quiet and everything, and look at this."
Dana Fletcher, who owns a business down the road from the church, told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield that Sutherland Springs is a "very small" but "very tight-knit community."