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Texas Church Gunman who killed 26 once escaped from mental hospital

Five years ago, the gunman responsible for Sunday's mass shooting was sent to an inpatient mental health facility in New Mexico but escaped and fled to Texas, according to multiple reports.

On June 13, 2012, Devin Kelley, 26, reportedly fled the Peak Behavioral Health Services Center in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

A missing person report claimed the shooter, who was in the Air Force, was ordered to submit to mental health treatment after admitting he beat his first wife and stepson, according to KHOU. One attack on the child left him with a skull fracture.

According to the shooter's 2012 court-martial plea bargain, obtained by PEOPLE, he pled guilty to choking and kicking his wife and had a charge for pointing an unloaded gun at her dismissed.

An Air Force spokeswoman tells PEOPLE Kelley was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, from 2010 until he was discharged in 2014, following the 2012 court-martial on accusations he assaulted his spouse and their child. The spokeswoman adds the shooter received a bad conduct discharge and 12 months' confinement as well as a reduction in rank.

The missing person report also claimed the gunman "was a danger to himself and others as he had already been caught sneaking firearms" onto Holloman Air Force Base, where he "was attempting to carry out death threats" he had made "on his military chain of command," according to the New York Times.

After escaping from the inpatient mental health facility, the killer crossed the border into Texas, where he was eventually detained by El Paso Police and turned over to New Mexico authorities, according to The El Paso Times.

Read More: People.com

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