Texas shooting: Gunman 'escaped mental hospital in 2012'

The gunman who killed 26 churchgoers in Texas fled from a mental health clinic in 2012, according to a police report.

El Paso officers who detained Devin Kelley five years ago were told he was "a danger to himself and others". Kelley had been sent to the hospital after he was court-martialled for assaulting his ex-wife and stepson during a stint in the US Air Force.

He was "attempting to carry out death threats" against "his military chain of command", the report states.


Officials say the assault charge should have legally barred him from owning guns. El Paso police arrested Kelley at a bus terminal in downtown El Paso in June 2012, according to a police report first reported by KPRC in Houston.

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Officers wrote that Kelley had fled Peak Behavioral Health Services in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, about 100 miles (160km) away.