The Texas church shooter attended a festival at the chapel just days before he opened fire on congregants, according to a report.
Five days before his bloody massacre, Devin Patrick Kelley brought his kids to the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs’ fall festival — a Halloween event with games, a bouncy house and a petting zoo, the Houston Chronicle reports.
The troubled Airman was estranged from his wife and had been involved in a feud with his mother-in-law — a member of the congregation — so other church members saw his presence as the event as a positive step.
“They thought, ‘Oh this is good. This is progress,'” Tambria Read, a friend of Kelley’s mother-in-law told the paper.
His mother-in-law, Michelle Shields, was particularly pleased to see her son-in-law at the church event with her grandkids, Read told the Chronicle.
Kelley had been sending her threatening texts before the shooting, according to law enforcement officials — but she wasn’t inside when he attacked.