Texas church gunman once fled mental health facility

The reports also noted that Devin Patrick Kelley was once caught trying to bring guns onto a military base and threatened superior officers there.

Kelley was also named as a suspect in a 2013 sexual assault in New Braunfels, about 35 miles from the scene of Sunday’s church attack in Sutherland Springs.

The records that emerged on Tuesday add up to at least three missed opportunities that might have offered law enforcement a way to stop Kelley from having access to guns long before he slaughtered much of the congregation in the middle of a service.

Authorities said the death toll of 26 included the unborn baby of one of the women killed. Kelley died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was chased by bystanders and crashed his car.

The Air Force confirmed on Tuesday that Kelley had been treated in the facility after he was placed under pretrial confinement stemming from a court-martial on charges that he assaulted his then-wife and hit her child hard enough to fracture the boy’s skull.

Involuntary commitment to a mental institution would have been grounds to deny him a weapon provided that records of his confinement were submitted to the federal database used to conduct background checks on people who try to purchase guns.

Kelley was also caught trying to bring guns onto Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico…