Third victim dies one day after shooting in Alabama church

(Reuters) – A third person has died following a shooting during a potluck dinner at a church near Birmingham, Alabama, police said Friday.

The Vestavia Hills Police Department did not name the 84-year-old Hoover, Alabama, woman who died Friday, a day after the shooting at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the city of some 40,000 people about seven miles (11 km) southeast of Birmingham.

Police identified the other victims as Walter Rainey, 84, of Irondale, Alabama, who died at the scene on Thursday; and Sarah Yeager, 75, of Pelham, Alabama who died at a hospital on Thursday.

Authorities have yet to name the shooter, described as a 71-year-old who occasionally attended the church, or discuss his motive. During a briefing Friday, police said someone at the church subdued the shooter until police arrived to take him into custody.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford and Christopher Gallagher; editing by Donna Bryson and Chizu Nomiyama)

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