FBI: Suspect in South Carolina Church Shooting Captured
UPDATE: A 21-year-old South Carolina man suspected of shooting nine people to death at a church has been arrested in North Carolina, the FBI said.
Dylann Roof was arrested in Shelby, N.C.,, the FBI has confirmed.
The FBI and Justice Department’s Civil Rights division are investigating the shooting as a hate crime.
CHARLESTON, S.C., June 17 (UPI) — Investigators identified the suspect in the South Carolina church shooting as a 21-year-old Columbia, S.C. man with an arrest record.
Dylann Roof has been arrested twice as an adult in South Carolina, including a first-offense drug possession charge in March. He was also arrested April 26 on a trespassing charge. The FBI and Justice Department’s Civil Rights division are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime.
NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks said, “The NAACP was founded to fight against racial hatred, and we are outraged that 106 years later, we are faced today with another mass hate crime. Our heartfelt prayers and soul-deep condolences go out to the families and community of the victims at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church. The senselessly slain parishioners were in a church for Wednesday night bible study. There is no greater coward than a criminal who enters a house of God and slaughters innocent people engaged in the study of scripture.
South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney is among nine dead after a man opened fire in a historically black church in a possible hate crime.
Pinckney, 41, who also served as pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, was in the church during an hourlong Bible study when the shooting started.
Police gave only a vague description of the suspect, but an image from surveillance video shows a man wearing a gray sweatshirt over a white T-shirt and black pants. He is about 5-foot-9 and has a slender build.
Law enforcement officials said the man went into the Charleston church about 8 p.m. Wednesday. He attended the service and a church meeting with the eventual victims before he opened fire, killing six women and three men. The suspect was last seen leaving the church in a black four-door sedan. Police believe he was still in the Charleston area.
“He has on a very distinctive sweatshirt,” police Chief Greg Mullen said. “This is an all-hands-on-deck effort with the community, as well as law enforcement. When people go out they should be vigilant, they should be aware of their surroundings. And if they see anything suspicious, they should call law enforcement.”
Eight died at the church, the oldest AME church in the South. The ninth victim died at the hospital. Pinckney’s desk in the Senate was covered in black cloth early Thursday, as per tradition.
“He was a man with a booming voice and notable presence, but always a peaceful, calming presence,” said House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford. “He did not want to pick fights.”
Shortly after the shooting, church members and members of the local community gathered near the church. “The question is, ‘Why God?’,” said a man wearing a shirt bearing the name of the Empowerment Missionary Baptist Church.
The FBI, the Department of Justice, the Sate Law Enforcement Division, the coroner’s office and multiple police agencies have launched a hate crime investigation. Matters were made more complicated Wednesday night when a bomb threat was called in around 10:30 p.m. No explosives were found.
