Arms dealer, 70, identified as gunman who killed three at Alabama church potluck
Mugshot shows suspect Robert Findlay Smith with a black eye believed to have been sustained when he was tackled to the ground by a hero churchgoer
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The suspect accused of killing three elderly parishoners in a shooting at an Alabama church potluck has been identified as 70-year-old Robert Findlay Smith.
Mr Smith, an alleged federal firearms dealer, was charged with capital murder on Friday, a day after the shooting at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, south of Birmingham.
A mugshot shows the suspected gunman with a black eye believed to have been sustained when he was tackled to the ground by a hero churchgoer who wrestled away his firearm.
Three churchgoers at a “Boomers Potluck” event were killed: 84-year-old Jane Pounds, 75-year-old Sarah Yeager, and 84-year-old Walter Bartlett Rainey.
Mr Rainey’s wife told the Associated Press how her husband had invited Mr Smith – who was sat by himself without food – to sit at their table before the gunfire began.
Mr Smith was said to have pulled the weapon out from underneath the table and started firing.
An attendee of the potluck dinner reportedly intervened and stopped the rampage by striking the suspect gunman with a foldable chair. The Vestavia Hills Police Department then arrived on scene.
“The person that subdued the suspect, in my opinion, was a hero,” said Vestavia Hills police Capt Shane Ware during a Friday news conference. He added that lives were saved because of the action.
As AL.com reported on Friday, Mr Smith was believed to be a licensed federal arms dealer with a business registered to his address in Cahaba Heights – less than three miles from the scene of the attack.
No motive has been released and an investigation is ongoing.
As for whether he was previously known to law enforcement, Mr Ware said: “Any past interactions involving this suspect are currently still being investigated by numerous agencies and it would be premature for me at this time to go into that topic.”
Mr Smith remains at Jefferson County Jail where he is being held without a bond, reports said. It was not clear if he had entered a plea.
While police did not reveal the name of the parishoner credited with taking the gunman down, church founder Rev Doug Carpenter identified him as Jim Musgrove in an interview with AL.com.
Rev Carpenter said he witnessed Mr Musgrove hit the suspect with a chait and snatch his handgun away from him.
“He’s a real hero,” Rev Carpenter, who retired in 2005, told AL.com.
“He didn’t hit him hard enough to hurt him.”
Friends and church members took to social media to praise Mr Musgrove’s bravery and quick-thinking.
The suspected shooter only gave his name as “Mr Smith”, and described himself as a former church member.
Nobody who was present had met him before, Rev Carpenter said.
In an email sent to St Stephen’s church members on Thursday, current Rector, Rev John Burruss, said the victims of the shooting were “pillars of the community”.
“Our hearts are broken from the horrible tragedy this evening at Saint Stephen’s,” he wrote.
Former Alabama Senator Doug Jones, who lives in Vestavia Hills, told CNN the shooting was “heartbreaking”.
“It goes to show that no community is immune from this kind of gun violence that we see playing out across the country. No one is immune,” Mr Jones said.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press