Church Massacre Suspect Held as Charleston Grieves

Local Editor

The mass murder of nine people who gathered Wednesday night at a landmark black church had shaken a city whose history from slavery to the Civil War to the present is inseparable from the nation's anguished struggle with race.

Fourteen hours after the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the police in Shelby, N.C., acting on a tip from a motorist, on Thursday arrested Dylann Storm Roof, a 21-year-old white man with an unsettled personal life and a recent history of anti-black views.

The killings, with victims ranging in age from 26 to 87, left people stunned and grieving. Witnesses said Roof sat with church members for an hour and then started venting against African-Americans and opened fire on the group.
Furthermore, people gathered at Morris Brown Church to proclaim that a racist gunman would not divide a community already tested by the fatal police shooting in April of an unarmed African-American, Walter Scott.

"We cannot make sense of what has happened, but we can come together," declared Rev. George Felder Jr., pastor of New Hope A.M.E. Church.

Even amid calls for calm and compassion, at least three bomb threats were made Thursday that forced the evacuation of buildings around Charleston.

Accordingly, the gunman left six women and three men dead or dying, including a library manager, a former county administrator, a speech therapist who also worked for the church, and two ministers.

Greg Mullen, the Charleston police chief, called it a hate crime, and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said the Justice Department was investigating that possibility.

The police said it was a tip from a commuter that led to the arrest. Jail officials said that Mr. Roof would make a court appearance on Friday afternoon.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team