Air Force ordered to pay more than $230M in Texas church shooting

| February 8, 2022

ninja sends in word that the Air Force is paying out bigly for their screw up in regards to the 2017 church shooting in Texas. They are paying because the assailant was a person prohibited from possessing or buying firearms (from a domestic violence conviction) that happened while he was in the Air Force, but they never entered the information in the NICB system. If they had, he would not have been able to buy his weapon at a retail point of sale.

Air Force Times reports;

The Air Force must pay more than $230 million in damages to survivors and victims’ families of a 2017 Texas church massacre for failing to flag a conviction that might have kept the gunman from legally buying the weapon used in the shooting, a federal judge ruled Monday.

More than two dozen people were killed when Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire during a Sunday service at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. Kelley, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after being shot and chased by two men who heard the gunfire at the church, had served in the Air Force before the attack.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez had ruled in July that the Air Force was “60 percent liable” for the attack because it failed to submit Kelley’s assault conviction during his time in the Air Force to a national database.

Lawyers for survivors and relatives of those killed had asked for $418 million, while the Justice Department proposed $31.8 million.

The approximately 80 claimants include relatives of those killed and 21 survivors and their families. Authorities put the official death toll at 26 because one of the 25 people killed was pregnant.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Air Force, Government Incompetence

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KoB

Not condoning the AF screwup at all here. Howsome ever, the lawers went after the low hanging fruit in their lawsuit. The American Taxpayer. “If they had, he would not have been able to buy his weapon at a retail point of sale.” Nope, but he would have gotten one somewhere else. Murderous bastards are gonna murder.

May Peace become bestowed upon the victim’s families and may the Barbed C0@k of Satan torment this murderer as his worthless soul burns in Hell.

CWORet

Agree all, KoB. Walk in and buy one? Nope. Buy one off a buddy who doesn’t know what a POS he really was? Easy. Especially given his wife and child busted up, I would hope any potential employer or a traffic stop would might want to know what a scumbag Fk this POS was. Every time. The BCD might pop, but yea the AF Screwed the Pooch on a serious DV. Thanks to the guys who chased him down, shot him up, and encouraged him to take his own life. Time saved, additional problems solved. My .02 on this. Low hanging fruit? Pretty much, the lawers (sic, but most around here know the meaning) rejoice with the payday…

Hate_me

A big truck in the right location. Plenty of fertilizer and an 8th-grade education in chemistry. A machete and a timid audience.

Killing innocent people is easy. There are many paths to hell.

5JC

I imagine some places will take note. The Airforce can afford it. Guess the next victims will sue some municipality out of existence.

Hatchet

Epic fail that was completely avoidable. My deepest condolences to the family.

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SFC D

I’m sure we can expect a civil suit against the licensed gun dealer who sold him the weapon.

rgr769

Well, it could happen. But it is doomed to failure. The gun dealer ran the background check and he came up clean. The dealer couldn’t even be characterized as negligent.

SFC D

I’m 100% in agreement with you. The dealer acted in good faith. But some lawyer some where will convince the family of a victim that there’s money to be made

USMC Steve

That stupidity has been tried before, and as far as I am aware, has been uniformly unsuccessful. Blaming the tool for the wielder’s criminality would open a pandora’s box of lawsuits that would cripple just about every facet of our lives. As well as being ignorant liberal nonsense.

ChipNASA

The courts…

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Devtun

Yeah, the USAF budget for 2022 is $156B. More than the combined defense budgets of Germany, UK, and France. Might have to skimp on some large flat screen TVs & nice office furniture. Like KoB said – it’s ultimately the taxpayer on the hook for this.

HT3

We the Tax Payers are paying are $23,000,000 for the Texas Church Shooting.

I fixed the headline for you.

Schuyler

So, the Top Cop (aka Director of Security Forces) for USAF was Brig Gen Andrea Tullos from July 2016 to Aug 2019. What are the odds the now-Maj Gen Tullos will have her “career” closed out over her failure to ensure her subordinates did what they were supposed to?