Shooter kills 3 at Alabama church potluck
VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. — Police investigating a shooting at an Alabama church say the 71-year-old visitor previously attended some services there before he showed up for a potluck dinner, pulled a handgun and fatally shot three of the elderly participants, one of whom died in his wife’s arms as she whispered words of love in his ear.
Police said church members were spared further violence Thursday evening when someone at the dinner subdued the gunman and held him until police arrived. The suspect was in custody Friday while prosecutors prepared warrants to charge him with murder.
Two of the Alabama shooting victims were 84; the third, 75. They had gathered with other church members for a “Boomers Potluck.”
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church was Walter Barlett Rainey’s favorite place, a church that “welcomes everyone with love,” according to his family.
“We are all grateful that she was spared and that he died in her arms while she murmured words of comfort and love into his ears,” said the statement provided by 84-year-old Rainey’s daughter, Melinda Rainey Thompson.
Police said Sarah Yeager, 75, of Pelham, died soon after being taken to a hospital Thursday. The third victim, an 84-year-old woman, died Friday. Police did not immediately release her name, citing a request by her family for privacy.
More people likely would have been killed or injured had the shooter not been stopped, Vestavia Hills police Capt. Shane Ware said.
“It was extremely critical in saving lives,” Ware told a news conference Friday. “The person that subdued the suspect, in my opinion, was a hero.”
Ware said the suspect and the three victims were all white. He said police are still investigating what motivated the suspect, who occasionally attended services at the church. He said the man’s name is being withheld until prosecutors formally charge him with capital murder.
Investigators executed a search warrant at a home in relation to the shooting, police said in a statement Friday. They did not say what they were searching for or whose home it was.
The church gathering Thursday was described as a “Boomers Potluck,” according to messages posted on the church’s Facebook page by the Rev. John Burruss, the pastor. He said he was in Greece on a pilgrimage with a group of members and trying to get back to Alabama.
Vestavia Hills Mayor Ashley Curry told reporters his “close-knit, resilient, loving community” had been rocked by “this senseless act of violence.”
The community is home to many businesspeople, doctors and lawyers who work in nearby Birmingham. Vestavia Hills is known for top-flight schools and a suburban lifestyle. It has nearly 40,000 residents, most of whom are white.
Thursday’s shooting happened just over a month after one person was killed and five injured when a man opened fire on Taiwanese parishioners at a church in Southern California. It comes nearly seven years to the day after a white supremacist killed nine people during Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.
Agents with the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives joined investigators at the scene, which remained cordoned off Friday with yellow police tape as police vehicles with flashing lights blocked the route to the church.
Thousands of people rallied last weekend in the U.S. and at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to renew calls for stricter gun control measures.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statement late Thursday lamenting what she called the shocking and tragic loss of life.
Although she said she was glad to hear the suspect was in custody, she wrote: “This should never happen — in a church, in a store, in the city or anywhere.”