Academy Sports & Outdoors sued for selling gun to Texas church shooter
The family of three people killed in a Texas church shooting has filed a lawsuit seeking $25 million in damages against a sporting goods chain that sold two firearms to the shooter.
The lawsuit claims Katy, Texas-based Academy Sports & Outdoors was negligent in selling to Devin Patrick Kelley an AR-556 rifle used in the deadly Nov. 5 shooting.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in San Antonio by the family of Joann Ward, who along with her two daughters were among the 26 people killed.
In a statement, the sporting goods retailer offered condolences to the victims but said it complied with all laws. The sporting goods chain has previously confirmed that Kelley had bought two firearms from two different San Antonio stores in 2016 and 2017.
Kelley slaughtered 26 people at a Texas church and was able to buy weapons because the Air Force failed to report his domestic-violence conviction to the federal database that is used to conduct background checks on would-be gun purchasers, authorities said.
Federal officials said the Air Force didn’t submit Devin Patrick’s Kelley’s criminal history even though it was required to do so by Pentagon rules.
Kelley, 26, was found guilty of assault in an Air Force court-martial in 2012 for abusing his wife and her child and was given 12 months’ confinement and a bad-conduct discharge in 2014. That same year, authorities said, he bought the first of four weapons.
Under Pentagon rules, information about convictions of military personnel for crimes like assault should be submitted to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Investigation Services Division.
