Devon Patrick Kelley was discharged from the Air Force in 2014 for “bad conduct” after being prosecuted for domestic violence and child abuse. But Kelley was not the only one guilty of bad conduct. The Air Force gave him a break, letting him avoid a more serious charge that could have put him in prison for much longer and would have given him a dishonorable discharge. He only spent a year in jail for a rage-filled assault on his step-son and wife. And it was not the first time he had assaulted or threatened a woman, child, or animal. In fact, he even threatened to kill his military superiors and ended up escaping from a mental health facility.
Under the federal felony statute in the Violence Against Women Act, he could have gotten ten years in prison for a first offense. But not in the Air Force. A year in jail – typical for a misdemeanor offense in many states – was his only sentence. This caused him only to lose one rank and face a bad conduct discharge. After his conviction, the Air Force violated federal law by not notifying the FBI of his conviction – giving him another break. There may be many more cases where the Air Force failed to comply with federal law, letting would-be killers buy assault rifles and handguns. A federal investigation will now have to determine the extent of the Air Force’s actions in other such cases as well. Bad conduct by many who had a chance to do something to stop him.
But there are two other “bad conduct” stories that need to be written with questions that need to be asked.
Storyline #1
What and who produced Devon Patrick Kelley? What happened to him in childhood? What did not happen to address the early warning signs in his life as a child, teenager, and young adult? Who let his rage grow without effective intervention? In America, we raise our criminals, including our mass shooters, at home. Most likely Kelley’s rage began in his home growing up or soon thereafter. Not all mass shooters grow up in abusive homes but the question should be getting asked. Children of trauma grow up to repeat the generational cycle of violence and the "splash zone" of their rage produces mass murder. Most mass shooters, radicalized American terrorists, and cop killers are childhood trauma survivors where there has been no mitigation or intervention. What happened in the family? What happened in his earliest relationships? Why does the military not screen for the rage that comes from childhood trauma? Why was there not more aggressive intervention when he was violent with woman after woman? He was investigated for rape (2013) and domestic violence (2014) in New Braunfels and law enforcement and prosecutors did nothing. In the domestic violence case, deputies told the dispatcher after responding to one of the domestic violence calls that it was “misunderstanding and teenage drama.” Bad conduct by many who had a chance to do something to stop him.
Storyline #2
What was the most important warning sign in Kelley’s conduct that was ignored by everyone? The second storyline, completely missed, is this: Kelley was a strangler. Most mass shooters, radicalized American terrorists, and cop killers are not only childhood trauma survivors – they are also domestic violence offenders and stranglers. Devon Patrick Kelley was a strangler. In the Air Force court martial documents, they only refer to it as “choking.” He “choked” his wife. Choking is when food gets caught in your throat. When Kelley placed his hands around his wife’s neck, he was committing the felony crime of strangulation. Strangulation is external pressure to the neck that blocks air or blood flow even for seconds. When Kelley put his hands around a woman’s neck, he was telling people he was a killer and no one paid attention. Once a woman is strangled, she is 750% more likely to later be killed by that man. No one treated his strangulation as seriously as it deserved to be treated. It is likely he was never offered even offered ways to address his trauma issues before the Air Force taught him to use assault weapons and apply pressure to the neck of his opponents in hand to hand combat. Bad conduct by many who had a chance to do something to stop him.
Alliance for HOPE International and others have documented that strangulation in an intimate relationship proceeds most mass shootings and cop killings in this country. Strangled women are the “canary in the coal mine” of mass shooters. Next time you hear “he choked me”, pay attention to her abusive partner. You are in the presence of a would-be killer. The rage of a man that would strangle a woman is the same rage of a man that would open fire on 50 people gathered to worship God on a Sunday morning in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
As I write today, we are training 90 FBI agents, federal and tribal prosecutors, and tribal law enforcement in Columbia, South Carolina at the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Advocacy Center. Our program is called the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention. Our focus is on the aggressive handling of near-fatal and non-fatal strangulation cases in domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault cases. Men who strangle women are the most dangerous men on the planet. Our failure to hold stranglers accountable for their actions is often life-ending bad conduct by those of us who have an opportunity to stop them.
Devon Patrick Kelley was a rage-filled domestic violence strangler and child abuser who had left every possible lethality marker for a mass shooter we know of in plain sight with his choices for more than five years. Last Sunday, he should not have been in the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas. He should have been in prison.
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