- A shooting at a church in Vestavia Hills,
Alabama on Thursday left three people dead. - A reverend said the shooter was thwarted by a churchgoer who hit the suspect with a folding chair.
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The suspect in the shooting at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, identified by police as 70-year-old Robert Findlay Smith, was charged with capital murder, The Associated Press reported.
Two victims of the shooting died at the scene, while a third was treated and later died at UAB Hospital, Insider previously reported.
Rev. Doug Carpenter, a pastor who served at St. Stephen's until 2005, told the Associated Press that a churchgoer in his 70s charged Smith with a folding chair, disarming him amid the shooting.
"He hit him with a folding chair, wrestling him to the ground, took the gun from him and hit him in the head with his own gun," said Carpenter, who told The AP he was not present during the shooting on Thursday but spoke with witnesses of the tragedy.
Vestavia Hills Police Department Captain Shane Ware said the actions of the unidentified churchgoer were "extremely critical in saving lives," per The AP.
"The person that subdued the suspect, in my opinion, was a hero," Ware said.
A mugshot of Smith from the Jefferson County Jail showed a noticeable black eye, as well as scratches on his face.
Carpenter described Smith as a loner who had previously attended church dinners like the one on Thursday but always sat by himself. Carpenter told The AP that the shooting "doesn't make sense."
"Why would a guy who's been around for a while suddenly decide he would go to a supper and kill somebody?" Carpenter said. "People tried to speak to him, and he was kind of distant and very much a loner."
Carpenter told The AP that Walter Rainey, one of the victims of the shooting, invited Smith to join his table during dinner, and Rainey's wife offered to fix a plate for Smith, who declined.
"Linda Rainey said he didn't have any food, and she offered to fix a plate for him, and he turned that down," Carpenter told The AP.
Shortly thereafter, the suspect opened fire, shooting Walter Rainey and two others. Rainey, 84, died at the church in his wife's arms, per The AP.
Another victim, 75-year-old Sarah Yeager, died at the hospital. A third victim, 84, died Friday, but police declined to release her name at the request of her family, The AP reported.
The shooting came on the heels of a spate of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, that reignited the conversation around gun control.