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Apple Receives a Search Warrant for Texas Church Shooter’s iPhone Data

Police have served with a search warrant for data from the iPhone used by the gunman in the Sutherland Springs, Tex. church shooting earlier this month.

Texas law enforcement served Apple with a search warrant to obtain data from Devin Patrick Kelley's iPhone and related online iCloud storage account, according to a report by the San Antonio Express-News on Monday citing court documents.

Kelly murdered 26 people and injured several others on Nov. 5 when he opened fire at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs. Law enforcement authorities believe Kelly committed suicide after fleeing the scene, in what was Texas's biggest mass shooting.

Texas law enforcement want information like photos, messages, or documents from Kelly's iPhone and iCloud account that could potentially aid their investigation, the report said.

Although an FBI agent who was working with the Texas Rangers previously declined to comment on the model of Kelly's iPhone, court documents show that Kelly had both an iPhone SE and a cheap LG 328BG cell phone.

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It's unclear if Apple will comply with the search warrant or is helping law enforcement crack into Kelley's iPhone or related iCloud account. While Apple says in a post on law enforcement guidelines that the company may provide iCloud data "in response to a search warrant issued upon a showing of probable cause," Apple's stance on protecting user privacy could preclude the company from helping law enforcement access Kelly's iPhone.

Last year, Apple refused to comply with a court order in which the Justice Department sought help from the tech giant to unlock the iPhone of one of the shooters involved with the Dec. 2015 San Bernardino, Calif. terrorist shooting.

The FBI wanted Apple to create software that could circumvent the iPhone's touch security that permanently locks the phone if someone incorrectly guesses the phone’s passcode too many times. Additionally, Apple encrypts, or scrambles, the data stored on iPhones, so that the data remains unusable to anyone who forcibly tries to access it.

Apple, and other tech companies, argued that creating software, or backdoors, that bypass its products' security could weaken the company's overall cyber security efforts and make its products more vulnerable to hacking.

Eventually, the FBI said it found a way to access the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone without Apple's help.

However, the recent effort by law enforcement to access the Texas shooter's iPhone could reawaken a potential legal battle between Apple and authorities.

The FBI agent working with the Texas Rangers told reporters after the shooting that the FBI's forensic teams were unable to access the shooter's iPhone.

Although the FBI did not say at the time if it would ask Apple for help accessing the phone, as it did in the case of the San Bernardino shooting, Texas law enforcement appears to have done so.

Fortune contacted Apple for more information and will update this story if it responds. The Texas Department of Public Safety declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.

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