A shooting Thursday outside a church in Vestavia Hills in Alabama (southern United States) left two dead and one injured.
A shooting Thursday outside a church in Vestavia Hills in Alabama (southern United States) left two dead and one injured, city police said, adding that a suspect was in custody. “Three people at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church were hit by bullets,” Vestavia Hills police said on their Facebook page.
It also specifies that a suspect is currently in custody, and that there is “no additional threat” for the city. The shooting took place in front of the church shortly after 6:00 p.m. (2300 GMT), when a “potluck” was organized, a community meal where everyone brings a dish, according to the Saint Stephen’s website.
Police said the assailant entered the church alone and started firing. Three people were affected: two died and another injured, she said. The United States is going through an outbreak of gun violence, marked in particular by the massacre in a primary school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, which left 21 dead, including 19 children. Since the beginning of the year, already more than 20,000 people have died by firearm in the United States, according to the site Gun Violence Archive, which incorporates suicides in its data.