Three dead in Iowa church shooting hours after shooting in Wisconsin
Three, including shooter, killed in Iowa church shooting • Two wounded in shooting targeting funeral in Wisconsin
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, REUTERSUpdated: JUNE 3, 2022 06:31 POLICE CORDON LINE: DO NOT CROSS(photo credit: VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
A man shot and killed two women in the parking lot of a church in Iowa state on Thursday and then turned the gun on himself, police said, adding three more dead to the toll in a series of recent shootings that have rocked the United States.
The Iowa shooting took place outside Cornerstone Church, a fundamentalist Christian church east of the city of Ames, while a church program was on inside, said Nicholas Lennie, chief deputy of the Story County Sheriff's Office.
BREAKING: Story County Sheriff’s Office & agencies are at Cornerstone Church in Ames. 911 calls came in just before 7 about an active shooter. We’re told there are 3 victims, including the shooter. There’s no ongoing threat. Details could change as police learn more. @KCCINewspic.twitter.com/Y3AEA35PKj
When deputies arrived on the scene they found all three dead, Lennie said, adding that he could not provide identities nor disclose what the relationship between them may have been.
"This appears to be an isolated, single-shooter incident," Lennie said.
Moments before, Biden urged Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and implement other gun control measures to address the mass shootings.
"Enough, enough!" the president said.
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on administration plans to fight inflation and lower costs during a speech in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building's South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 10, 2022. (credit: REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS)
Two wounded in shooting during Wisconsin funeral
At least two people were wounded when multiple gunshots were fired at people attending a funeral in the state of Wisconsin on Thursday, police said.
Multiple gunshots were fired into a crowd of mourners at an afternoon grave-side funeral at Graceland Cemetery in Racine, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, Racine police Sergeant Kristi Wilcox told reporters.
At 2:26pm there were multiple shots fired at Graceland Cemetery. There are victims but unknown how many at this time. The scene is still active and being investigated. We will update you when more details become available.Thank you!
One of the victims, a young female, was treated at a local hospital and released, but the second victim, apparently suffering more serious injuries, was flown by helicopter to a Milwaukee hospital, Wilcox said.
No suspect was in custody, she said, adding police were asking anyone with information or video footage that might assist investigators to come forward. Asked whether multiple shooters may have been involved, Wilcox said she was "not at liberty to say." And she said she could not confirm initial reports that the shooting may have come from a car.
Mayor Cory Mason issued a statement saying he had ordered police to enforce an 11 p.m. curfew through the weekend for anyone under the age of 18.
"Today's heinous shooting at a cemetery while a family was already mourning the loss of a loved one is a new low for these perpetrators of violence in our community. The violence has got to stop," Mason wrote.
Milwaukee television station TMJ4 News, citing family members attending the grave-side service, said five relatives of the man who was being buried at the time were struck by gunfire, though their conditions were not immediately known.
A man who lives across the street from the cemetery, Rey Brantley, told Milwaukee television station TMJ4 News that he was picking his daughter up from school when he heard gunfire, and that his son was playing basketball nearby and came close to being shot.
"Who in their right mind would go and shoot up a funeral in broad daylight," Brantley said in an on-camera interview. "Those people were attending a funeral."
