The madman who gunned down 26 people in a Texas church fatally shot himself after crashing his vehicle with two local residents in hot pursuit, the local sheriff said Monday.
“At this time we believe that he had a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt told CBS News about 26-year-old Devin Kelley.
Tackitt said gunfire was exchanged between Kelley — who was clad in black tactical gear — and a man who has been identified in media reports as Stephen Willeford, a 55-year-old plumber.
“A citizen was across the street. They engaged in a firefight for just a little bit,” he said. “The suspect gets in his vehicle and takes off. This — I’m calling him hero — here in town, then stops a truck, and says, ‘I need help. This guy just shot up the church: Follow him.'”
Johnnie Langendorff was at the wheel of the truck that chased Kelley for about 11 miles.
Tackitt said he believes gunfire also was exchanged during the 11-mile pursuit before Kelley “wrecked out.”
Asked on CNN what went through his mind during the chase, Langendorff said: “Nothing … ‘get him’ – ‘cause that’s what you do. You chase the bad guy.”
He said Willeford rushed to the scene barefoot when he heard the gunfire.
“From what I know, he was just taking a nap and heard the gunshots and reacted,” Langendorff told CNN. “He came out, he was barefooted. He had no shoes on or nothing but he was ready to act.”
Summer Caddel said she thought it was “awesome” Langendorff, her boyfriend, jumped into action.
“I couldn’t pick a better person to do that,” she told CNN. “He did an amazing job.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told CBS News that the attack on the church in Sutherland Springs, a community of fewer than 400 people about 40 miles east of San Antonio, did not appear to be a “random act.”
At Kelley’s home in an isolated area of New Braunfels, about 35 miles north of Sutherland Springs, a Comal County Sheriff vehicle blocked the entrance Monday.
A “beware of dog” sign was affixed to the gate where a dented mailbox bears the address, Reuters reported.
Kelley, who served in the Logistics Readiness unit at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until his discharge in 2014, was court-martialed in 2012 on charges of assaulting his wife and child.
He was given a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for 12 months and a reduction in rank, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said.
His Facebook page has been deleted, but cached photos show a profile image where he appeared with two small children. He also posted a photo of what appeared to be an assault rifle, writing a post that read: “She’s a bad bitch.”