Two Texas families have filed a $25 million lawsuit against the big box sporting goods retailer where the killer who attacked the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs purchased his rifle.
The Ward and Lookingbill families argue Academy Sports and Outdoors should not have sold Devin Patrick Kelley the Ruger AR-15 he later used to kill 26 people during a Sunday morning service in November, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
Academy has stated they transferred the gun to Kelley after he passed the required background check, though the Air Force later acknowledged that he should have been barred from being a lawful firearm possessor under federal law due to records from his military service. Kelley had been convicted of assaulting his wife and infant stepson while enlisted in the military but the service never forwarded that information to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center. Surviving relatives of at least nine of the victims have filed a separate wrongful death claim against the Air Force for that break-down.
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