The Texas Shooter's Cruelty Went Far Beyond What We Previously Thought

We already knew that the shooting that killed 26 inside a Sutherland, Texas, church on Sunday was committed by a psychopath as evidenced by the fact that he killed 26 people inside a church. However, new information about his previous crimes has come to light that showed just how cruel he was.

That 26-year-old Devin Kelley had received a discharge from the Air Force for bad conduct resulting from him being physically abusive to his wife and her child is already known. However, according to New York Times, the extent of the abuse, specifically to that of his stepson, is incredibly heinous.

“He assaulted his stepson severely enough that he fractured his skull, and he also assaulted his wife,” said Don Christensen, a retired colonel who was the chief prosecutor for the Air Force. “He pled to intentionally doing it.”

Keep in mind that Kelley’s stepson was an infant at the time, and he intentionally fractured that baby’s skull. It takes a real kind of messed up person to go so far as to crack an infant’s head, but then again, it takes a real kind of messed up person to shoot up a church filled with innocent people.

Kelley’s history also involves animal cruelty. According to the New York Times, Kelley had a puppy whom he treated less than kindly as well.

“The only thing that sticks out about him was his dog,” she said.

He had a pit bull puppy that he kept tied up in the sun all day outside of his RV, she said. She also recalled an incident in which the police were called because the man had struck the dog in the head.

The police arrived and there was a standoff for approximately an hour, she said, in which her neighbor refused to come out of his trailer.

Records show Mr. Kelley was charged with cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor, in August 2014. The case was dismissed. He moved out a few weeks later, she said.

Kelley’s last act of cruelty was to walk into that Sutherland church and murder everyone in the building according to ABC News. Kelley managed to kill half, one of which was a 1-year-old girl named Noah Holcombe.