A 70-year-old arms dealer has been charged with the murder of three elderly churchgoers at a boomers potluck party in Alabama.
Robert Findlay Smith, 70, now faces murder charges in Thursday’s triple shooting at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama.
Smith sat alone drinking alcohol and turned down offers to join the others at the potluck dinner before gunfire shattered the evening’s peace, one survivor recalled.
“It felt like he freaked out,” said Susan Sallin, 73. Sallin was seated at the same table in the “boomers potluck” with the three people involved in Thursday night’s shooting at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, were killed.
The suspected shooter had previously attended church services and some church gatherings for people of baby boomer generation and older, but didn’t appear to interact much with others, she said.
Robert Findlay Smith in his mug shot after his arrest. He charged him with capital murder in the shooting of three people at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
One of the victims, Sarah Yeager, is pictured on her Facebook page
Another victim, Jane Pounds. Police said the shooter reportedly concealed the weapon, a handgun, before opening fire at the potluck dinner
Walter ‘Bart’ Rainey, 84, pictured here with his wife Linda, was identified Friday morning as one of three seniors who fatally shot at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church during a church meeting on Thursday
That evening he sat alone at a table. While wine was available at the potluck, he sipped from what appeared to be a small bottle of scotch and shunned invitations to join the others.
“I personally invited him twice to come and sit at our table because I wanted him to feel a sense of inclusion, but he didn’t come,” Sallin said.
She said a woman whose husband would be killed moments later in the shooting “saw that he hadn’t made a plate and went and offered to make him a plate.” He declined that, too.
Robert Findlay Smith, 70, is charged with murder in the 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 release the name of the third victim, but friends identified her as Jane.
CORRECTS CHURCH NAME Church members comfort each other after a shooting at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church Thursday, June 16, 2022 in Vestavia, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
A prayer circle formed in a parking lot near the church on Thursday evening
Police said the gunman was present at a meeting dubbed the “Boomers’ potluck” at the time of the shooting at the church, Alabama Episcopalian.
Rev. Doug Carpenter, pastor of St. Stephen’s for three decades before retiring in 2005, said he heard a man hit the gunman with a folding chair before wrestling him to the ground and taking the gun
The gathering was merry as the friends – who haven’t been able to get together as much during the pandemic – chatted about that evening’s meal, their favorite cars and other light-hearted topics.
Sallin said she did not recall hearing any arguments or heated conversations before the shooting suddenly erupted.
“I heard this loud metallic noise and I thought a metal chair had fallen on the floor. And then there was another sound, and another sound, and I realized it was a gun,” she recalled.
“People fell to the ground. I dived for the floor. When I got to the floor, I realized that two of my friends who were sitting at the table with me had been beaten.”
Sallin said she crawled across the floor to reach her friends.
The Boomers Potluck event was advertised on the Church website
Vestavia Hills’ Captain Shane Ware revealed Wednesday that the currently detained suspect allegedly behind Thursday’s shooting at an Alabama church was a regular and attended a small church meeting before killing two fellow attendees and injuring one
“I tried to calm them down, pat them and tell them, ‘You’re not alone. You are not alone.’ That’s the message I wanted to convey to them.”
Nearby, Linda Foster Rainey cradled her husband. According to a family statement, “He died in her arms while she whispered words of comfort and love in his ear.”
Sallin said one of the men in the group, also in his 70s, was able to overpower the gunman. “I saw him take the gun from the man’s hand and hit him in the head with the gun,” she said.
Rev. Doug Carpenter, pastor of St Stephen’s for three decades before retiring in 2005, said he understood the man hit the gunman with a folding chair before wrestling him to the ground and taking the gun .
“The person who subdued the suspect was a hero in my opinion,” Vestavia Hills Police Chief Shane Ware told reporters at a news conference on Friday, saying the act was “extremely crucial in saving lives.” .
The shooting, which injured another parishioner, happened just after 6pm on Thursday at the church in Vestavia Hills, a suburb of Birmingham
A panicked priest was filmed running from the Alabama Episcopalian Church in suburban Birmingham, where the neighborhood gathering was being held
The church had been under lockdown as a crime scene for several days, but the congregation returned to worship on Sunday with a message to choose love over hate.
Rev. John Burruss, Rector of St. Stephen’s, appealed to the Christian story of the Last Supper, where Jesus invited the friend who would ultimately betray him.
“I have no doubt that Bart and Sharon and Jane would always invite their Judas to sit down and share a meal because they knew God’s unconditional love,” he said, using the three victims’ first names through.
“That was their guiding ethic and they fully embodied it. … They taught us that everyone is welcome at the table,” Burruss said.