SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas -- A man dressed in black tactical-style gear and armed with an assault rifle opened fire inside a church in a small South Texas community on Sunday, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 others in what the governor called the deadliest mass shooting in the state's history.
The dead ranged in age from 5 to 72 years old, said Freeman Martin, the regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Twenty-three were found dead in the church, two were found outside and one died after being taken to a hospital.
The suspect was later found dead in his vehicle, Martin said at a news conference.
Two people -- one a U.S. official and one in law enforcement -- who were briefed on the investigation identified the man as 26-year-old Devin Kelley. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the investigation.
Martin said the attacker was dressed all in black, wearing tactical gear and a ballistic vest, when he arrived at a gas station across from the First Baptist Church about 11:20 a.m.
He crossed the street and started firing a Ruger rifle at the church, and he continued after entering the building. As he left, he was confronted by an armed resident who chased him. A short time later, Kelley's body was found. There were several weapons inside his vehicle.
Martin said it's unclear whether the attacker died from a self-inflected wound or if he was shot by the resident who confronted him. He said investigators weren't ready to discuss a possible motive for the attack.
The U.S. official said Kelley lived in a San Antonio suburb and doesn't appear to be linked to organized terrorist groups. The official said investigators are looking at social media posts Kelley may have made in the days before Sunday's attack, including one that appeared to show an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon.
In a brief statement Sunday night, the Pentagon confirmed that Kelley served in the Air Force "at one point" but didn't provide additional details.
Air Force spokesman Ann Stefanek said Kelley received a bad-conduct discharge after being accused of assaulting his spouse and child, and he was sentenced to 12 months' confinement after a 2012 court-martial. Kelley served in Logistics Readiness at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until his discharge, she said.
After the attack, federal law enforcement officers swarmed the small community 30 miles southeast of San Antonio to offer assistance, including members of the FBI's evidence collection team and investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Among those killed was the 14-year-old daughter of the church's pastor, Frank Pomeroy. His wife, Sherri Pomeroy, wrote in a text message to The Associated Press that she and her husband were out of town in two different states when the attack occurred.
"We lost our 14 year old daughter today and many friends," she wrote. "Neither of us have made it back into town yet to personally see the devastation. I am at the charlotte airport trying to get home as soon as i can."
The wounded were taken to hospitals. Video on KSAT-TV showed first responders taking a stretcher from the church to a waiting helicopter. Eight victims were taken by medical helicopter to Brooke Army Medical Center, the military hospital said.
Megan Posey, a spokesman for Connally Memorial Medical Center, which is in Floresville about 10 miles from the church, said "multiple" victims were being treated for gunshot wounds. She declined to give a specific number but said it was less than a dozen.
RESIDENTS REACT
Alena Berlanga, a Floresville resident who was monitoring the chaos on a police scanner and in Facebook community groups, said everyone knows everyone else in the sparsely populated county. Sutherland Springs has only a few hundred residents.
"This is horrific for our tiny little tight-knit town," said Berlanga. "Everybody's going to be affected, and everybody knows someone who's affected," she said.
Carrie Matula, who works at a gas station near the church, told MSNBC that she ran out to see what was happening after hearing gunshots.
"I never thought it would happen here," she said. "This is something that happens in a big city. I would have never thought this would have taken place here. It's just too tight a community. It doesn't make sense."
Regina Rodriguez arrived at the church a couple of hours after the shooting and walked up to the police barricade. She hugged a person she was with. She had been at an amusement park with her children when she heard of the shooting.
She said her father, 51-year-old Richard Rodriguez, attends the church every Sunday, and she hadn't been able to reach him. She said she feared the worst.
Nick Uhlig, 34, is a church member who didn't go Sunday morning because he was out late Saturday night. He said his cousins were at the church and that his family was told at least one relative, a woman with three children and pregnant with another, is among the dead. He said he hadn't heard specific news about the other.
"We just gathered to bury their grandfather on Thursday," he said. "This is the only church here. We have Bible study, men's Bible study, vacation Bible school."
"Somebody went in and started shooting," he said, shaking his head and taking a long drag of his cigarette.
Speaking in Tokyo today during his trip to Asia, President Donald Trump expressed his sorrow over what he called a "horrific shooting" at a "place of sacred worship."
Trump said that "our hearts are broken, but in dark times -- and these are dark times -- such as these, Americans do what they do best." He said Americans will pull together to help those who are suffering, and he pledged to continue monitoring the investigation.
Gov. Greg Abbott called the attack the worst mass shooting in Texas history. "There are no words to describe the pure evil that we witnessed in Sutherland Springs today," Abbott said. "Our hearts are heavy at the anguish in this small town, but in time of tragedy, we see the very best of Texas. May God comfort those who've lost a loved one, and may God heal the hurt in our communities."
Sutherland Springs is in a rural area where communities are small and tight-knit. The area is known for its annual peanut festival in Floresville, which was most recently held last month.
"We're shocked. Shocked and dismayed," said state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Democrat whose district includes Sutherland Springs. "It's especially shocking when it's such a small, serene area. These rural areas, they are so beautiful and so loving."
The church is a white, wood-framed building with a double-door at the entrance and a Texas flag on a pole in front. A morning worship service was scheduled for 11 a.m. The first news reports of the shooting were between noon and 12:30 p.m.
Hours after the shooting, the one-story rectangular church remained sealed off, with yellow tape posted along the church grounds. Reporters poured into Sutherland Springs throughout the day as the tragedy transformed the once-obscure Texas farming community into the scene of the latest mass killing.
The unincorporated community has a population that numbers in the low hundreds -- the 2000 census was 362, according to the Texas State Historical Association.
The church has posted videos of its Sunday services on a YouTube channel, raising the possibility that the shooting was captured on video.
In the most recent service, posted Oct. 29, Frank Pomeroy parked a motorcycle in front of his lectern and used it as a metaphor in his sermon for having faith in forces that can't be seen, whether it be gravity or God.
"I don't look at the moment; I look at where I'm going and look at what's out there ahead of me," Pomeroy said. "I'm choosing to trust in the centripetal forces and the things of God he's put around me."
Information for this article was contributed by Jim Vertuno, Sadie Gurman, Eric Tucker, Nomaan Merchant, Diana Heidgerd, Michael Balsamo and Jill Colvin of The Associated Press; by Kristine Phillips, Ed O'Keefe and Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post; and by David Montgomery and Christopher Mele of The New York Times.
A Section on 11/06/2017