Devin Patrick Kelley Phone: FBI Having Trouble Accessing Texas Church Shooter's Smartphone

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation recovered a phone from the man who shot and killed 26 people in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas but thus far has not been able to crack the device, according to a report from USA Today.

The phone was reportedly sent to Quantico, Va., where the FBI Academy is located. The Academy houses the law enforcement agency's training and research center.

The FBI has not yet disclosed what type of phone was used by the shooter. Given its trouble in cracking the device, it is speculated that the device is an iPhone—the same device that caused issue for the agency after another deadly shooting that took place in San Bernardino, Calif. in 2015.

USA Today reported the FBI wouldn't disclose what type of device was recovered from the shooter. One agent reportedly said, "I don't want to encourage bad guys to buy it."

If the device is eventually revealed to be an iPhone, it could lead to the start of another standoff between the FBI and Apple. The tech giant refused to help the law enforcement agency crack the iPhone 5c that belonged to one of the two shooters who carried out the attack in San Bernardino despite private and public pressure to do so.

While the FBI claimed the device might contain information that would prove valuable as it investigated the two shooters and any potential ties they may have to terrorist organizations, Apple held that breaking its encryption in just one case would potentially compromise the security protection for all of its users.

“While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in his letter to customers shortly after the FBI began pressing the company to crack the phone. “And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.”

Cook said the proposition of creating a backdoor into its security protocol to allow law enforcement access was something the company viewed as "too dangerous to create."

The FBI was eventually able to gain access to the device without the help of Apple. While the details of the law enforcement's apparent workaround are still sparse—a U.S. court recently ruled the agency could keep private the details of the tool—it is known that the FBI paid at least $900,000 an apparent third-party contractor that was able to access the device.

It is believed that outside contractor was Cellebrite, an Israeli security firm that has advertised its ability to crack iPhone security for law enforcement agencies around the world. The firm claimed earlier this year that it was able to successfully crack an iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, expanding the number of devices that it could potentially provide access to.

Apple has modified its security protocol on newer devices to add additional protections. If the shooter responsible for the attack on the Texas church were to have a newer Apple device, it is unclear if Cellebrite or the FBI would have the tools to crack it.