A man shot and killed two women in a church parking lot in Iowa state on Thursday and then turned the gun on himself, police said, adding three more deaths to the toll in a series of recent shootings that have shaken the United States.
The Iowa shooting took place shortly after President Joe Biden delivered a major speech on gun violence following mass shootings in recent weeks in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, another shooting on Thursday wounded two people attending a funeral at a cemetery in Racine, Wisconsin.
The Iowa shooting took place outside Cornerstone Church, a fundamentalist Christian church east of the city of Ames, while a church service was being held inside, said Nicholas Lennie, chief of the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office. Story.
When sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene, they found all three dead, Lennie said, adding that he could not provide identities or reveal their relationship.
“This appears to be an isolated, single shooter incident,” Lennie said.
Moments earlier, Biden urged Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and implement other gun control measures to tackle mass shootings.
“Enough, enough!” said the president.
The United States has been rocked in recent weeks by mass shootings that have killed 10 black residents in upstate New York, 19 children and two teachers in Texas, and two doctors, a receptionist and a patient in Oklahoma.
In Racine, Wisconsin, on Thursday, multiple shots were fired into a crowd of mourners attending a graveside funeral in the afternoon, injuring two people, Racine Police Sgt. Kristi Wilcox told reporters.
One of the victims was treated at a local hospital and released, the other was airlifted to a Milwaukee hospital, apparently with more serious injuries, Wilcox said. No suspect has been arrested.