June 18, 2015
White Gunman Murders 9 Worshippers in a Black Church
Alleged killer gunman captured
By Frederick H. Lowe
Dylann Roof, the alleged killer of nine people in a black Charleston, S.C., church. Roof was later captured with incident. He has not yet been charged. Facebook photo
Pastor Clementia Pinckney of Emanuel AME Church was shot to death Wednesday night in a massacre. Facebook photo
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A white gunman who walked into an African-American church in Charleston, S.C., Wednesday night and shot and killed nine worshippers, attending Bible study, has been captured without incident even though police warned he was armed and very dangerous.
Charles Frances, a spokesperson for the Charleston police department, said the alleged murderer Dylann Roof,21, of Lexington S.C., was arrested Thursday morning in Shelby N.C. Frances did not know the circumstances that led to Roof’s arrest, but other sources said Roof was apprehended during at a traffic stop, 240 miles from Charleston. Roof will not be charged until he is in the custody of the Charleston police, Frances told NorthStar News Today.com. Police handled the Roof’s arrest much more differently than the arrest last July of an unarmed Eric Garner, who was choked to death by Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City cop, for selling loose cigarettes.
Eight of the victims died at the scene and one died in a hospital, said Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen. One of the victims was pastor Clementa Pinckney, a longtime state senator who spent the earlier part of the day campaigning in the city with Hillary Clinton. The names of the other victims will be released later by the county coc
Mullen added there were survivors but he refused to disclose how many, according to news reports. After the shooting, police cordoned off the area, but the gunman got away.
The incident is being called a hate crime and a massacre. Mullen said the suspect attended the Bible meeting for an hour before standing up and firing his gun.
According to an eyewitness, he says that he has “to do it” because black people “rape our women” and are “taking over our country,” said Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.
Roof reloaded his gun, which was a present for his 21st birthday, several times before fleeing. Cohen said Roof admired apartheid, the separation of the races in South Africa.
“The only reason someone would walk into a church and shoot people that were praying is hate,” said Mayor Joe Riley.
At about the same time, there were several bomb threats in the area.
The shooting occurred around 9 p.m. at the Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston, according to news reports.
Known as “Mother Emanuel,” the church is the oldest AME church in the South, having been founded in 1816 under the leadership of abolitionist minister Morris Brown, the second bishop of the AME Church in the U. S.
The deadly shootings have angered African-American church officials. Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Black Church Initiative, said he is traveling to South Carolina to personally direct 682 churches on security measures for congregants and their families.
Rev. Evans said, “This horrendous act follows a litany of brutal attacks on African Americans over the past several years across the United States."