"They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream." ---Martin Luther King, Jr. Eulogy for the Victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, 1963
Charleston, South Carolina (CNN)[Latest developments] • Charleston church shooting suspect Dylann Roof has been taken into custody in North Carolina, a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN's Deborah Feyerick. • Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina, is the suspect in Wednesday's deadly shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, city police said Thursday. • Witnesses say the suspect stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people," a law enforcement official said. The shooter is also thought to have used a handgun, according to the official. [Full story] Dylann Roof. Dylann Roof. They got him. The man suspected of killing nine people Wednesday night at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, was arrested Thursday morning about three hours away near Shelby, North Carolina, law enforcement authorities said. Investigators identified the suspect as Dylann Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina. The man spent an hour in a prayer meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday night before he opened fire, Charleston police Chief Greg Mullen said Thursday morning. A law enforcement official says witnesses told them the suspect stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people." Police were searching for information about Roof. A picture of him on social media showed him wearing a jacket with what appear to be the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and nearby Rhodesia, a former British colony that was ruled by a white minority until it became independent in 1980 and changed its name to Zimbabwe. Spoiler Six females and three males were killed, Mullen said. Three people survived, including a woman who received a chilling message from the shooter. "Her life was spared, and (she was) told, I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to spare you, so you can tell them what happened," Charleston NAACP President Dot Scott told CNN. Scott said she heard this from the victims' family members. Federal authorities have opened a hate crime investigation into the shooting at the oldest AME church in the South, the Department of Justice said. "The only reason someone would walk into a church and shoot people that were praying is hate," Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said. Among the victims was the church's politically active pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, his cousin, South Carolina state Sen. Kent Williams, told CNN. Pinckney was also a state senator and one of the black community's spokesmen after the slaying of an unarmed man by a North Charleston police officer earlier this year. The Rev. Clementa Pinckney speaks at the church in Charleston in December 2012. The Rev. Clementa Pinckney speaks at the church in Charleston in December 2012. There were 13 people inside the church when the shooting happened -- the shooter, the nine people who were killed and three survivors, South Carolina state Sen. Larry Grooms, who was briefed by law enforcement, told CNN. Two of the survivors were not harmed, he said. It was not clear if the man targeted any individual. "We don't know if anybody was targeted other than the church itself," Mullen said. Definitely both a hate crime and racist intentions CNN Full Story Here
Prayers for those impacted by this horrible, disgusting act. I hope the shooter is brought to justice.
This this thing is duel pronged as far as hate crimes are concerned. 1.) Multiple victims, all of the same race. 2.) All victims targeted at a church. The fuel for this guy's actions has to be either hatred of the victims' race, or hatred of the victims' religion. Or both.
actually we need to know more to come to that conclusion. He could have had a beef with somebody personally, in addition to the possibilities you raised.
Yes. This is terrorism to a "T." He attacked innocent people, in their place of worship, most likely based upon the color of their skin.
How do you feel about him wearing the flags of Apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia in his Facebook photos? What does that say about his beliefs?
I don't see how it being a "hate crime" is really relevant....he's a mass-murderer, should we execute him twice because he had dickish reasons for being a mass-murderer?
Witnesses say the suspect stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people," a law enforcement official said. http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/18/us/charleston-south-carolina-shooting/index.html
Same question to Bobby Crate MC and Batman texxxx - what is so wrong with you guys that this is already a trolololol topic? Come on boys.
