[Click2Houston] Channel 2 Investigates obtained law enforcement documents revealing Devin Kelley escaped from a behavioral center in New Mexico a little more than five years before Sunday’s deadly rampage in Sutherland Springs. The incident report, filed by the El Paso Police Department, states Kelley was picked up at a bus terminal in downtown El Paso before midnight on the evening of June 7, 2012. The report states two officers were dispatched to the terminal to look into a missing-person report.
When they arrived, the two officers learned Kelley had escaped from Peak Behavioral Health Services, a mental health facility in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, that has a dedicated unit for service members and veterans.
Xavier Alvarez, who was the director of military affairs for Peak Behavioral Health at the time, told the officers on scene that Kelley, who was 21 years old at the time, had “suffered from mental disorders and had plans to run to from Peak Behavioral Health Services” by purchasing a bus ticket out of state.
NBC News spoke with Alvarez, who according to the police report, said he informed officers that Kelley “was a danger to himself and others as he had already been caught sneaking firearms onto Holloman Air Force base,” located approximately 100 miles from the bus terminal. The report further states that Kelley “was attempting to carry out death threats” he had made on his military superiors.
Alvarez called Sunland Park and El Paso police and El Paso police created a perimeter around the Greyhound station.
Alvarez sat there in the dark, watching for Kelley's arrival. He saw a taxicab pull up and he crept over to it; when it pulled away, he and Kelley were "eye to eye."
"Because he made a reaction as if he was going to run, I quickly restrained him. He put up no fight. He laid on the ground and police were there in seconds," Alvarez said.
He noted Kelley was wet.
"He thought he was going to be tracked and he went through the river to cover these tracks."
"He was very quiet, but he did mention that given the opportunity he would try to go for the [officers'] guns," Alvarez said.
When he went back to the facility, Alvarez told NBC News Kelley was very docile. He was there only a couple of weeks before the military picked him up for his court-martial.