Two women were shot and outside a church on Thursday by a man who then turned the gun on himself, according to police.
A man two women outside the Cornerstone Church, a fundamentalist Christian megachurch on the outskirts of Ames, Iowa, according to the Story County Sheriff’s Office.
The shooting took place in the parking lot while Salt Company, a college ministry program at the church, took place inside the church. It was the first summer night of the program, according to .
Calls came in about the shooting at 6.51pm, about an hour before President would make a fervent plea on national television to end gun violence.
Officials in Story County are still piecing together what happened Thursday night. According to the sheriff’s office Capt. Nicholas Lennie, the incident appeared to be isolated.
‘There was a program going on. We do have other individuals inside the church. We do not have any other information at this point if anybody else was injured in this. We are working through the process of investigating this incident and speaking with the others inside the church,’ Lennie said.
The church is located near Interstate 35, about 30 miles north of Des Moines.
When police arrived at the church they discovered both women and the suspected gunman dead. Their identities and possible relation to each other have not been revealed.
The US has been shook in recent weeks by a surge in mass shootings. A second incident on Thursday night in Racine, Wisconsin, rattled a grave-side funeral when a man fired multiple gunshots into the crowd of mourners. Two people were wounded, but no one was taken into custody, according to officials.
The previous day, a man his surgeon and three others at a medical office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was the 233rd mass shooting in the US this year.
During his televised speech Thursday Biden called for a ban on high-capacity magazines and urged Congress to pass gun control legislation that would require background checks, red flag laws and repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from legal liability when their weapons are used for violence.
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