Former Eagle Passan Among 26 Victims Killed at Sutherland Springs, Texas Church Massacre

By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2017

Former Eagle Passan Ricardo Rodriguez is one of 26 persons killed on Sunday, November 5, 2017, at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas by a lone gunman identified as Devin Patrick Kelly, age 26.

Rodriguez and his wife were inside the First Baptist Church attending church services when Kelly entered the service opening fire with a semi-automatic assault rifle, killing 26 innocent people and injuring 20 more-including Rodriguez.

Rodriguez family members in Eagle Pass, Texas stated that Rodriguez and his wife had moved to Sutherland Springs, Texas several years ago after residing over 25 years in Eagle Pass.

Kelly, a resident of New Braunfels, Texas, traveled about 40 miles south to Sutherland Springs, Texas to commit the largest massacre in Texas history.  Kelly was shot and wounded outside the church by a citizen carrying a gun and pursued as he fled the scene of the grisly massacre.  Kelly lost control of his vehicle at a nearby intersection and shot himself in the head after receiving two gunshot wounds from the citizen Good Samaritan.

Kelly was Court-Martialed by the United States Air Force for assaulting his then wife and step-son in 2012 and ordered to serve one year in military prison.   He also was committed to a mental health facility but escaped from it in 2012.  He allegedly threatened his Air Force superiors and was once stopped with attempting to carry firearms into the military base. The Air Force failed to report his Court-Martial criminal conviction to the National Criminal Information Center (NCIC) that would have banned him from buying firearms.

Kelly was found to have a Ruger AR-15 assault rifle used in the tragic massacre and two handguns in his possession.  A total of 15 spent bullet magazines, each holding 30 bullets, were found at the First Baptist Church crime site.

Kelly had domestic disputes with his mother-in-law who attended the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, but she was not present on the date of the massacre.

First Baptist Church members stated that Kelly had attended the church’s Fall Festival with his children just five days before the massacre.  He was very familiar with the layout of the First Baptist Church and grounds.

The few survivors stated they played dead to avoid Kelly from shooting them because he walked through the church pews looking for live people to shoot.  He reportedly shot young children or babies who cried at point blank without any remorse.

The Sutherland Springs, Texas First Baptist Church massacre is described by some experts as a domestic terrorism incident and raises the national debate on whether Congress should pass legislation on gun control or assault rifle controls.

President Trump rescinded in February 2017 an Obama law that prohibited the sale of firearms to mental health patients or people.

President Trump’s nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. Dean Winslow, a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel with tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, stated during his confirmation hearing before the United States Armed Services Committee that it is “insane” to allow citizens to purchase high-powered assault rifles such as AR-15s.