According to authorities, a third victim, an 84-year-old woman, has died, increasing the death toll to three after a 71-year-old man opened fire at a church potluck meal on Thursday night.

The statement detailed that "it is with great sadness that the Vestavia Hills Police Department reports the passing of the third shooting victim from Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church," adding that the "84-year-old white female was transported, from the scene to UAB hospital for treatment on the evening of June 16, 2022."

The shooting took place at 6:22 pm local time and police rushed to the scene. “From what we’ve gathered from the circumstances of this evening, a lone suspect entered a small church group meeting and began shooting,” Vestavia Hills police Captain Shane Ware said at a briefing late on Thursday. The captain added that the suspect is in custody and that there was “no threat to the community at this time."

According to investigators, the other two victims were 84 and 75 years old.

The suspect, described only as a white man, is now in police custody and will have capital murder warrants filed against him by the county district attorney's office later on Friday, according to Ware.

A year chock-full of US mass shootings

The recent spree of tragic shootings has pushed guns to the forefront of a national debate as US leaders grapple with how to reduce the alarming rate of violence.

Earlier this month, as a response to mass shootings, senate members announced a bipartisan framework that offers measured gun curbs and efforts to improve school safety and mental health programs. 

Although the proposal does not present more radical solutions to the mass shootings crises in the US, it is a modest move that will pave the way for more legislation to put an end to gun violence in the future.

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There have been hopes among people in leadership to pass the law quickly, perhaps this month, before the political momentum dies out as it was only recently that two mass shootings claimed tens of lives in Uvalde and Buffalo. 

According to the framework, juvenile records of gun buyers under the age of 21 will be made available when they undergo background checks. The shooters that committed their crimes in Uvalde and Buffalo have committed mass shootings in recent years, though they're both only 18. Furthermore, the agreement will offer money to states to enforce "red flag" laws that will facilitate confiscating guns from people considered potentially violent.

The framework would also require more people who sell guns to obtain dealer licenses, which entails that they'd have to implement background checks on purchasers.

In June, Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law that prohibits New Yorkers under the age of 21 to buy semiautomatic guns. With that, New York became the first city to enact major gun control initiatives following a rampage of deadly mass shootings across the country.

Republicans and Democrats once again have shown a sharp divide in their approach to containing gun violence. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas had stated that after the Uvalde school shooting the government should boost school security and mental health facilities, but he was confident that tighter gun regulations will be merely ineffective in containing mass shootings.

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