VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. (AP) – A gunman opened fire inside an Alabama suburban church, killing two people and injuring a third at a small group meeting before being arrested Thursday, authorities said.
The attack took place at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the Birmingham suburb of Vestavia Hills, said Police Captain Shane Ware. He said emergency dispatchers received a call around 6:20 p.m., reporting an active shooter at the church.
A suspect was arrested and the injured victim was being treated at a hospital, Ware told a news conference Thursday afternoon. Police declined to identify the suspect or victims, or provide further details about the attack, and said another briefing was scheduled for Friday.
At a previous press conference, Ware had said one person died and two more were hospitalized.
The church’s website included a “Potluck Boomers” for Thursday night. “There will be no program, just eat and have time for coexistence,” the pamphlet said.
Thursday’s shooting took place just over a month after one person died and five were injured when a man opened fire on Taiwanese parishioners in a Southern California church. It also comes nearly seven years after a confessed white supremacist killed nine people during a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
In Vestavia Hills, investigators remained at the scene hours after nightfall, with yellow police tape cordoning off the church complex and emergency vehicles and firefighters with flashing lights blocking the road to the church. . The FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Office of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, and Explosives sent officers to the scene.
Nearby, people gathered and prayed.
The Rev. Kelley Hudlow, an Episcopal priest of the Diocese of Alabama, told WBRC that the shooting shocked the church and the community at large.
“It simply came to our notice then. St. Stephen is a community built on love, prayer and grace and will come together, “he said in a live interview with the station.” People of all religions come together to pray for healing. ” .
He said messages of support were coming in from all over the United States and the world. “We need everyone. Pray, think, meditate and send love to this community because we will need everything,” he said.
There were several high-profile shootings in May and June, beginning with a May 14 racist attack that killed 10 black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The following week, a gunman massacred 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
On Saturday, thousands of people gathered in the United States and at the National Mall in Washington, DC, to renew calls for stricter gun control measures. Survivors of mass shootings and other incidents of armed violence pressured lawmakers and testified on Capitol Hill earlier this month.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statement Thursday afternoon lamenting what she called the shocking and tragic loss of life in the church. Although she said she was happy to know that the suspect was in custody, she wrote: “This should never happen: in a church, in a shop, in the city or anywhere.”
Vestavia Hills is a residential community in southeast Birmingham, one of Alabama’s two most populous cities.