News
Update: African American church shooting – Dylann Roof arrested
The suspected gunman in a shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, that left nine people dead is now in custody in North Carolina, police say.
Charleston police Chief Greg Mullen said Dylann Storm Roof, 21, of Lexington, S.C., was arrested during a traffic stop late Thursday morning in Shelby, North Carolina.
Mullen said Roof was stopped after a citizen saw a vehicle that “they thought was suspicious” and alerted police. Mullen said Roof was co-operative with police when he was stopped.
Officials from Charleston are on their way to Shelby to question the suspect and collect evidence, Mullen said.
Police said they do not believe anyone else was involved.
“We will now be looking at all of the facts, all of the motivations all the things that led this individual — if he is in fact the shooter — to commit this crime,” said U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “And we will determine which is the best ways in which to prosecute the case.”
Reuters reported that Carson Cowles, the uncle of Dylann Roof, said he recognized his nephew from photos released by police. Roof also received a .45-caliber pistol from his father as a birthday present in April, Cowles said.
Roof was charged earlier this year for a drug offence and trespassing, Reuters reported, citing court documents.
An intense manhunt was launched for the shooting suspect, who police said joined a Wednesday evening prayer meeting for nearly an hour and then allegedly opened fire inside the church in downtown Charleston.
The victims include 6 females and 3 males. Mullen said the names of the victims would be released after families were notified.
But Todd Rutherford, a state legislator, told The Associated Press that the Emanuel AME Church’s pastor, state Senator Clementa Pinckney, was among those killed.
Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two who was elected to the state House of Representatives at age 23, making him the youngest member of the House at the time.
“He never had anything bad to say about anybody, even when I thought he should,” Rutherford said. “He was always out doing work either for his parishioners or his constituents. He touched everybody.”
Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of Pinckney, said she spoke with one of the survivors of the shooting.
“From my understanding, the suspect came to the church and he asked for the pastor. He sat next to my cousin, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, throughout the entire bible study,” Johnson said.
“At the conclusion of the bible study, from what I understand, the survivors just started hearing loud noises just ringing out,” she said. “The suspect had already wounded a couple of individuals, including my cousin.”
U.S. President Barack Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, knew members of Emanuel AME Church, including Pinckney.
“I’ve had to make statements like this too many times, ” Obama said from the White House.
“At some point we will have to deal with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other countries – with this type of frequency,” he said. “And it is in our power to do something about it.”
Mullen said he believed the attack was a hate crime and a Justice Department spokesman said federal officials were opening a hate crime investigation. The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to be quoted by name because the federal investigation had not been announced.
Mullen said the scene at the church was chaotic when police arrived, and officers thought they had the suspect tracked with a police dog, but he got away.
Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. called the shooting “an unfathomable and unspeakable act by somebody filled with hate and with a deranged mind.”
“Of all cities, in Charleston, to have a horrible hateful person go into the church and kill people there to pray and worship with each other is something that is beyond any comprehension and is not explained,” Riley said. “We are going to put our arms around that church and that church family.”
In a statement, Cornell William Brooks, head of the NAACP civil rights group, condemned the shooting.
“There is no greater coward than a criminal who enters a house of God and slaughters innocent people engaged in the study of scripture,” Brooks said.
The attack came two months after the fatal shooting of an unarmed African American man, Walter Scott, by a white police officer in neighboring North Charleston that sparked major protests and highlighted racial tensions in the area. The officer has been charged with murder, and the shooting prompted South Carolina lawmakers to push through a bill helping all police agencies in the state get body cameras. Pinckney was a sponsor of that bill.
The Emmanuel AME church is a historic black church that traces its roots to 1816, when several churches split from Charleston’s Methodist Episcopal church.
One of its founders, Denmark Vesey, tried to organize a slave revolt in 1822. He was caught, and white landowners had his church burned in revenge. Parishioners worshiped underground until after the Civil War.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press