A San Antonio couple who lost their son and eight other family members in the Sutherland Springs Texas church shooting today filed a claim against the U.S. Air Force, blaming the 'institutional failures' of the Air Force for the murders of 26 people at the church on November 5, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"Under a 1996 law preventing spouse and child abusers from possessing firearms, the service's Office of Special Investigations should have entered that conviction into an FBI database," attorney Rob Ammons said. "The office didn't, the Air Force has admitted."
The claim, which names Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson as respondent, was filed on behalf of Joe Holcombe, 86, and his wife Claryce Holcombe, 85. Their son, J.B. Holcombe, was one of the people who was killed when former Airman Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire inside the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. Twenty other people were hurt. Kelley was killed as he attempted to drive away from the scene.
"Although the shooter undoubtedly pulled the trigger that resulted in the injuries and death of J.B. Holcombe and others, the failures of the US Air Force and others allowed the shooter to purchase, own and/or possess the semiautomatic rifle, ammunition, and body armor he used, and it is these failures that were a proximate cause, in whole or in part, of the injuries and death of the decedent," Ammons wrote in the claim.
Court records show that, while stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, Kelley was convicted by a court martial of assaulting his wife and young son in 2012. Kelley was sentenced to a year in a military jail, which he served at a facility in San Diego. Kelley was also detained at a mental health facility at the time as 'being a danger to himself and others,' and while detained, Ammons says he actually attempted to buy firearms over the Internet and have them delivered to a post office box in San Antonio, which is near his home in New Braunfels.
Later, Kelley received a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force.
"The Air Force Security Forces were required to enter his criminal arrest and conviction information into certain computerized databases, specifically including the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Systems, which includes databases that can be accessed by an authorized entity making an inquiry into the background of an individual when a person seeks to legally purchase certain firearms," Ammons said. "Had Airman Kelley's criminal arrest, conviction, and bad conduct discharge information been entered, as was required by US Air Force policies, Airman Kelley would have been prevented and prohibited from purchasing, owning and possessing firearms, ammunition, and body armor, specifically including the firearm and body armor that he used in the shooting."
The complaint says a 2015 Inspector General's report specifically reprimanded the Air Force dating back to 1997 for 'not consistently submitting the required criminal arrest and conviction information to appropriate federal law enforcement agencies, including criminal information databases.'
"The US Air Force was specifically aware in 2015 and likely well before that on average more than 3 out of 10 criminal arrest and conviction information was not reported, and despite their acknowledgement that they would 'promptly ensure' that such systemic failures were corrected, the US Air Force utterly failed the general public, and more specifically the decedent J.B. Holcombe and his family, by failing to ensure Airman Kelley's criminal arrest and convictions were properly reported," the complaint claims.
The complaint seeks unspecified wrongful death damages.