Crowds gather outside Charleston church before it reopens:Sunday 21 June 2015. Mourners hug after praying outside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.
(REUTERS) The Emanuel African Methodist Church will reopen for worship on Sunday, Reverend Ronnie Brailsford, pastor of the Bethel African Methodist Church in Columbia said on Saturday. Charleston church shooter planned first to attack college: media:Saturday 20 June 2015. Friends of the white gunman who shot and killed nine black people inside an historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina said he first talked about attacking a college campus, the Washington Post and NBC News reported on Friday.
The Washington Post reported 22-year-old Christon Scriven, a black neighbour of gunman Dylann Roof, said that during a recent night of drinking, Roof said he wanted to open fire on a school. At another point, Roof talked about shooting up the College of Charleston, according to the newspaper. "My reaction at the time was, 'You're just talking crazy,'" Scriven told the Post. Families of South Carolina church massacre victims willing to forgive:Saturday 20 June 2015. Dylann Storm Roof appears by closed-circuit televison at his bond hearing in Charleston, South Carolina June 19, 2015 in a still image from video.
(REUTERS) As the young white man charged with murdering nine people inside an historic black church in South Carolina stood silently and expressionless at a court hearing on Friday, relatives of the slain worshippers faced him one by one, offering tearful words of grief and forgiveness. Dylann Roof, 21, who authorities say spent an hour in Bible study with parishioners at the nearly 200-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston before opening fire on them, appeared via video feed before a magistrate judge who ordered him held without bond.
Dressed in a black-and-white prison uniform and flanked by two guards in body armor, Roof exhibited no visible emotion during the proceedings, even as he was addressed by loved ones of the victims. He was formally charged with nine counts of murder and a weapons offense. Suspect confesses to deadly attack on black US church:Friday 19 June 2015. US officials are investigating Dylann Roof's attack(twitter )
US shooting suspect in police custody:Friday 19 June 2015. Twenty one-year-old Dylann Roof was apprehended about 260km away in the town of Shelby in neighbouring North Carolina.
(REUTERS) After an intensive 14-hour manhunt, the man suspected of killing nine people in a United States church during a prayer meeting is now in police custody. The slaughter of six women and three men in the historic Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina has shocked a nation with heartache and sadness expressed from the White House and elsewhere, while the Justice Department has launched a hate crime investigation. Twenty one-year-old Dylann Roof was apprehended about 260km away in the town of Shelby in neighbouring North Carolina. The Justice Department’s hate crime investigation is a reaction to the broad view that this was a racially motivated attack. “Acts like this have no place in our country and no place in a civilized society, and I want to be clear, the individual who committed these acts will be found and will face justice. Suspect arrested for US church killings:Thursday 18 June 2015.
Dylann Roof is pictured in this undated photo taken from his Facebook account.
(REUTERS) Authorities on Thursday arrested a 21-year-old white man suspected of killing nine people at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina in a rampage that the United States is investigating as a hate crime. Law enforcement officials caught alleged gunman Dylann Roof, whose assault on Wednesday came in a year that has seen months of racially charged protests across the United States over killings of black men. Roof was arrested after a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina, about 220 miles (354 km) north of Charleston, said police chief Gregory Mullen. "This individual committed a tragic, heinous crime last night," Mullen told reporters. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said her office was investigating whether to charge Roof with a hate crime motivated by racial or other prejudice. "Since 9/11, our country has been fixated on the threat of Jihadi terrorism.
A Lot Of Concern. Nine killed at African-American church in US:Thursday 18 June 2015. Police respond to a shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina June 17, 2015.
(REUTERS) A white gunman killed nine people at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, the city's police chief said on Thursday, describing the attack as a "hate crime". The suspect, who police described as a 21-year-old white man wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and boots, was still at large hours after the shooting on Wednesday evening. Eight victims were found dead in the church, Chief Gregory Mullen told reporters at a media conference, and a ninth person died after being taken to a hospital. One other person was wounded and receiving treatment. Mullen said: “It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church when people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives.
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