Thread: Nine Killed in Shooting at Black Church in Charleston

Police officers outside the church. (Credit Richard Ellis/European Pressphoto Agency)

New York Times
June 17, 2015
By Jason Horowitz, Nick Corasaniti and Ashley Southall

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A white gunman opened fire Wednesday night at a historic black church in downtown Charleston, S.C., killing nine people before fleeing and setting off an overnight manhunt, the police said.

At a news conference with Charleston’s mayor early Thursday, the police chief, Greg Mullen, called the shooting a hate crime. “It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church while they are having a prayer meeting and take their lives,” he said.

The police said the gunman walked into the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church around 9 p.m. and began shooting. Eight people died at the scene, Chief Mullen said. Two people were taken to the Medical University of South Carolina, and one of them died on the way.

“Obviously, this is the worst night of my career,” Chief Mullen said. “This is clearly a tragedy in the city of Charleston.”

City officials did not release information about the victims and did not say how many people were in the church during the shooting. Hospital officials declined to comment.

Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said the city was offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunman, whom the police described as a clean-shaven white man about 21 years old who was wearing a gray sweatshirt, bluejeans and Timberland boots. Chief Mullen described him as “extremely dangerous.”

“To walk into a church and shoot someone, is out of pure hatred,” the mayor said as he walked away after the news conference.

Law enforcement officers from the F.B.I.; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division; and other agencies were assisting. Chief Mullen said the police were tracking the gunman with police dogs. Around 10:45 p.m., police officers escorted a man in handcuffs who appeared to match the attacker’s description. But officials said later that they were still searching for the gunman.

In the first hours after the shooting, the police blocked reporters and passers-by from approaching the church, opposite a Marriott Courtyard hotel, because of a bomb threat. Many among the cluster of media workers were political reporters in town to cover campaign events of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jeb Bush.

Helicopters with searchlights circled overhead, and a group of pastors knelt and prayed across the street. “The question is, ‘Why God?’,” a man wearing a shirt bearing the name of the Empowerment Missionary Baptist Church said during the prayer.

Later, a group of church leaders gathered at the corner of Calhoun and King Streets, a few blocks from where the shooting occurred, and held an impromptu news conference. Tory Fields, a member of the Charleston County Ministers Conference, said he believed the suspect had targeted the victims because of their race. “It’s obvious that it’s race,” he said. “What else could it be? You’ve got a white guy going into an African-American church. That’s choice. He chose to go into that church and harm those people. That’s choice.”

The church is one of the nation’s oldest black churches. The pastor, the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, is a state senator. It was not clear whether he was at the church at the time of the shooting. The Gothic Revival church was built in 1891 and is considered a historically significant building, according to the National Park Service. The church houses the oldest black congregation south of Baltimore, the Park Service said.

Gov. Nikki R. Haley said in a statement that she and her family were praying for the victims.

“While we do not yet know all of the details, we do know that we’ll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another,” the governor said. “Please join us in lifting up the victims and their families with our love and prayers.”

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/us...lina.html?_r=0

Originally Posted by Sumocakewalk

“It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church while they are having a prayer meeting and take their lives,” he said.

I know this guy is supposed to be the Chief of Police but comments like that make me wonder if he's ever actually been to the USA. Perhaps he means it's unfathomable that black people should be shot by someone who isn't a cop?

He truly does move in mysterious ways.

Police are trying to identify a male suspect in a church shooting that left nine people dead. (Charleston Police Department/ctvnews.ca)

(Charleston Police Department / The Post and Courier)

Damn. RIP.

Though authorities did not release the names of the victims, the church’s pastor, Clementa Pinckney, who is also a South Carolina state senator, was missing after the shooting, and some members of the congregation feared the worst. Indeed, House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford said Pinckney was among the dead, and friends started posting “RIP” condolences on social media.

9 dead in 'hate crime' shooting at historic African American church in Charleston - The Washington Post

Well, he's got a Dorothy Hamill girl's haircut, so that should simplify things if it's not a wig.

I doubt anything will burn. This is sickening. And its also another mass shooting g in the US. I assume the MSM and TV Networks will play up the white shooter, black victims, unarmed and call "experts" and shrinks to add to the hysteria.

From the photo doesn't look the steroid pumped neo Nazi, Aryan brotherhood type.

Looks like the perp had his mum whack a bowl on his head and give him a cheapo haircut, should be easy enough to locate the whacko

If the victims had been carrying bazookas and chainguns they would have been able to defend themselves. This incident just goes to show that people in the US need more guns.

Reuters
June 18, 2015
By Harriet McLeod

Law enforcement officials in Charleston, South Carolina, were searching on Thursday for a 21-year-old white gunman who killed nine people in a historic African-American church including a black state senator in an attack the U.S. Department of Justice called a hate crime.

The FBI identified the shooter as Dylann Roof of Columbia, South Carolina. An uncle of Roof's said he recognized the man in the surveillance photo as his nephew.

"The more I look at him, the more I'm convinced, that's him," Carson Cowles, 56, told Reuters in a phone interview.

Law enforcement agents were present at Roof's home, Cowles said, adding he believed the shooter's father had recently bought him a .45-caliber handgun as a birthday present.

The victims, six females and three males, included Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who was the church's pastor and a Democratic member of the state Senate, according to colleagues.

The U.S. Department of Justice opened a hate crime investigation into the shooting, which follows a string of racially charged killings that have prompted waves of protest across the United States over the past year and sparked the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

Roof sat with churchgoers inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for about an hour on Wednesday before opening fire, Police Chief Gregory Mullen said.

He reloaded five times even as victims pleaded with him to stop, a relative of Pinckney's said. Sylvia Johnson, a cousin, told MSNBC that a survivor told her the gunman reloaded five times during the attack. Pinckney tried to talk him out of it, she said.

"He just said, 'I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country," Johnson said.

full article: Police identify gunman who killed nine in South Carolina church attack | Reuters

[quote=Sumocakewalk;3040135]

the shooter's father had recently bought him a .45-caliber handgun as a birthday present.

/quote]

Dad must be so proud.

I don't even want to watch the news, there will be so called expert after expert sprouting out their own agenda over this.

the shooter's father had recently bought him a .45-caliber handgun as a birthday present.

A cultural thing, I suppose.

'I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country

Haters hate, and sadly it reads like a post in the TD DH.

Watch Obama sink his teeth into this one, photo opportunities at the church, which will enshrine it into American history.
He may attend one of the funerals, this media circus ain't out of town yet.

Originally Posted by jamescollister

From the photo doesn't look the steroid pumped neo Nazi, Aryan brotherhood type.

Looks like an Amish haircut.

This is some bad shite. Gunning people down in a church is some cowardly crap.

Originally Posted by wasabi

Watch Obama sink his teeth into this one, photo opportunities at the church, which will enshrine it into American history.
He may attend one of the funerals, this media circus ain't out of town yet.

Will he say " That could have been me "?

Originally Posted by Sumocakewalk

The U.S. Department of Justice opened a hate crime investigation into the shooting, which follows a string of racially charged killings that have prompted waves of protest across the United States over the past year and sparked the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

This. Is. A. Lie.

"He just said, 'I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country," Johnson said.

Maybe true; maybe not.

It could be a lie.

IMO, this guy could be mentally ill.

So, I hope - but doubt - the MSM will focus on that.

And.....

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) -
The suspect accused of fatally shooting nine people at Emanuel AME Church Wednesday night has been arrested

Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen announced 21-year-old Dylann Roof was taken into custody just after 11 a.m. following a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina. The 21-year-old from Lexington, South Carolina was wanted for the murder of nine people at Emanuel AME Church.

Authorities identified Roof as the shooting suspect Thursday morning. He was described as a white male, 21 years old, slender/small build, gray sweat shirt, blue jeans and clean shaven, and believed to be driving a dark in color Hyundai Elantra with vehicle tag LGF330.

Public records show Roof was most recently arrested in March in Lexington County on drug charges.

Read more: Charleston church shooting suspect Dylann Roof arrested in Shelb - FOX Carolina 21

Jesus this site is sane, I have been on another news site, were it is far worse, his haircut was a giveaway, already commented on that.

Luckily farangs pay to have their aches removed.

A white guy wearing an apartheid patch and screaming "you rape our women and want to take over our country' kills nine people in a black church and it's labled a crime against 'religion' by Fox News. Idiots. Oh, and let's all focus on his fuking haircut.