The 70-year-old suspected gunman in a shooting that killed three people at a church in Alabama was sitting alone drinking alcohol, rejecting offers to join the others gathered for dinner before the shooting disturbed the evening, the survivor recalls.
“He felt removed,” said Susan Saline, 73. Salin was sitting at a table in Boomers Potluck with the three people killed in Thursday night’s shooting at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.
The alleged gunman had previously attended church services and several church gatherings for baby boomers and older, but did not appear to associate much with others, she said. That night he sat at the table alone. While the wine was served at the bar, he drank from what looked like a small bottle of scotch, and avoided invitations to join the others.
“I personally invited him to come and sit at our table twice because I wanted him to feel a sense of inclusion, but he didn’t come,” Saline said. She said a woman whose husband would be killed a few minutes later in the shooting “realized he hadn’t fixed his plate and went upstairs and offered to make him a plate.” He also refused.
Robert Findley Smith, 70, has been charged with the deaths in a shooting that killed three people. Walter Bartlett Rainey, 84, Sarah Yeager, 75, of Pelham, and another woman were killed in the shooting. Police did not name the third victim, but friends called her Jane.
The gathering was joyful as friends – who failed to gather so much during the pandemic – talked about the food in front of them tonight, their favorite cars and other carefree topics. Saline said she did not remember hearing any argument or heated conversation before the shot suddenly exploded.
“I heard that loud metallic sound and I thought a metal chair had fallen to the floor. And then there was another sound and another sound, and I knew it was a gun, “she recalled. “People were diving to the floor. I dived to the floor. When I went down to the floor, I realized that two of my friends who were sitting at the table with me had been hit.
Saline said she crawled on the floor to reach her friends. “I was trying to calm them down and pat them and tell them, ‘You’re not alone. You are not alone.’ That’s the message I wanted them to receive. “
Linda Foster Rainey was hugging her husband nearby. According to a family statement, “he died in her arms as she muttered words of comfort and love in his ears.”
Salin said that one of the men in the group, who is also in his 70s, managed to conquer the shooter. “I saw him take the gun out of the man’s hand and hit him on the head with the gun,” she said.
The Rev. Doug Carpenter, pastor of St. Stephen’s for three decades before retiring in 2005, said he learned the man had hit the shooter with a folding chair before knocking him to the ground and taking the gun.
“I think the man who subdued the suspect was a hero,” Vestavia Hills Police Captain Shane Ware told a news conference on Friday, saying the action was “extremely critical to saving lives.”
The church had been closed for several days as a crime scene, but the congregation returned Sunday for worship with a message that it chooses love over hate.
The Reverend John Burus, Rector of St. Stephen, referred to the Christian story of the Last Supper, where Jesus invited the friend who would eventually betray him.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Bart, Sharon and Jane will invite their Judas to sit down and share food again and again, because they know the unconditional love of God,” he said, using the first names that went to the three victims. . from
“It was their guiding ethic, and they embodied it fully. … They taught us that everyone is welcome at the table, “said Bursa.
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