On November 5, 2017, the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history occurred at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs.
Devin Patrick Kelley was armed with an AR-15 style rifle, the same weapon used by mass shooters in Connecticut, Colorado, and Nevada. He killed 26 churchgoers, an unborn child, and wounded 20. The oldest person killed was 77; the youngest was 1.
Since the masses at First Baptist Church were streamed live online, there is video footage obtained by authorities that capture the entire shooting. Officials said it is clear that Kelley intended to kill every member of the church, as evidenced by his unyielding shooting, which ceased only to reload.
It is suspected that Kelley took his own life. He was chased by two locals, one of whom, Stephen Willeford, had a gun and began shooting.
Kelley enlisted in the army in 2010 but was released in 2014 with a bad conduct discharge. Earlier in 2014, when he was residing in El Paso County, Colorado, he was charged with a misdemeanor count of cruelty to animals after four witnesses attested to having seen him repeatedly punch a dog.
In 2012, when Kelley was 26 and in the Air Force, he was convicted of assaulting his then-wife and infant son. He served time in a military prison, which should have prevented him from purchasing any assault rifles. The Air Force, however, failed to forward this information to national databases that are consulted during background checks.
On November 8, Vice President Mike Pence visited the First Baptist Church and spoke to a group of grievers. “The Bible tells us that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and that will be our prayer for you from this day forward,” he said. In regards to the bereaved families of the 26 individuals killed in the church, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan tweeted, “The people of Sutherland Springs need our prayers right now.”
34 days earlier, after the Las Vegas shooting, their responses were almost identical.
Since this incident, there have been six more mass shootings in America according to MassShootingTracker.org, four of which have resulted in casualties.
Proverbs 2:11 reads: “Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.” Our government’s reluctance to lawfully acknowledge what the general public understands is not guarding any lives. If America’s frequent mass shootings haven’t prompted proper discretion, what in the world will?
Information obtained through The New York Times and The Washington Post. Read Katherine Schweit’s op-ed How You Can Prevent Mass Shootings.
–Salvatore Casto
Creating Order In A Lawless System
Imagine being wrongfully accused of something. Now imagine being wrongfully convicted of something and this conviction being a nearly 30-year-sentence. This was the nightmare Jarrett Adams wasn’t able to sleep through.
Back in 1998, Jarrett, a then 18-year-old high school graduate, was accused and convicted of sexual assault following a party encounter with a university student. Although he had an eyewitness to testify for him, his court-appointed attorney decided it would be best to simply not put on a defense, believing that it simply wasn’t necessary. But, as you should know, the eye testimony was more than needed. After coming to the recognizing that there wasn’t a single person of color in the courtroom, Jarrett came to the realization that “it wasn’t about the truth.” Knowing he was wronged but also in the right, for nearly 10 years of his 28-year-sentence, Jarrett read, learned, and dreamed on how to justly free himself from his hell-sent judgment – and, spoilers, he did just that.
Working alongside an inmate who worked for the prison law library, Jarrett read law books and educated himself on a case that stated that it was a requirement for defendants to be provided an effective assistance of counsel – a case that would later set him free. After reaching out to an attorney working under the Wisconsin Innocence Project, and after working together on his case, his charges were dropped – and Jarrett was freed.
But, again, his story doesn’t end here. In the summer of 2017, he became the first member of the Innocence Project to have also been defended by them. Now, working for the same organization that helped set him free, he is working to exonerate those just like him. And he worked a case that probably felt closer than home. In June of 2017, Jarrett helped overturn a case in the same court that his was wrongfully handled
The Junction Journal 