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Texas Shooter Devin Patrick Kelley Once Escaped A Psychiatric Institution While In The Air Force

The gunman fled the facility after making death threats to superiors.

In addition to being court-martialed for domestic violence while in the Air Force, the Texas shooter who killed 26 people in a church on Sunday also escaped from a psychiatric hospital in 2012.

According to the New York Times, Devin Patrick Kelley reportedly made death threats against his superiors and tried to smuggle weapons onto his base. Kelley was sent to Peak Behavioral Health Services after being charged for assaulting his then-wife and stepson.

While in the mental health facility, Kelley was attempting to carry out death threats” against “his military chain of command,” said the person who reported him missing. Kelley was also said to have “suffered from mental disorders.”

Kelley was taken into custody at a bus station in downtown El Paso before he was able to flee on a bus.  

El Paso officers were told by the facility staff that “was a danger to himself and others as he had already been caught sneaking firearms onto Holloman Air Force Base,” said a police report

In the same year, Kelley pleaded guilty in a military court to assaulting his wife and her toddler. He was sentenced to a year in a Navy prison.

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