New report has emerged that the suspect, Dylann Roof, got a
gun as his 21st birthday present from his father.
Roof has been taken into custody in Shelby, North Carolina,
law enforcement officers said.
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Dylann Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina, is the suspect
in Wednesday’s deadly shooting at the Emanuel AME Church
in Charleston, the Charleston police said Thursday. He may
be driving a black Hyundai with vehicle tag LGF330, police
said.
———————————————————————————
The person who shot and killed nine people at Charleston’s
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was there for
about an hour, attending a meeting with the eventual victims,
before he began shooting, Charleston police Chief Greg
Mullen said Thursday morning.
Of the nine people killed, six were female and three were
male.
The suspect is in his early 20s and stands 5 feet, 9 inches
tall. “He has on a very distinctive sweatshirt as well as the
vehicle, with a very distinctive license plate,” the police chief
said.
——————————————————————————————–
Police have launched a manhunt after nine people were killed
in a mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina,
United States.
The shooting happened at the Emmanuel African Methodist
Episcopal church in downtown Charleston at around
9pm (local time) on Wednesday night.
Police said eight people had died at the scene and a ninth
victim died later in hospital. A tenth victim is being treated in
hospital.
Charleston Police Chief Gregory Mullen confirmed the
shooting was being investigated as a hate crime.
The city’s mayor Joe Riley said: “This is an unspeakable and
heartbreaking tragedy in this most historic church, an evil
and hateful person took the lives of citizens who had come
to worship and pray together.”
Shortly after the shooting, people were told to move back
after a bomb threat was made in the area, the Reuters news
agency reported.
A police spokesman said they were looking for a slim white
male suspect, aged around 21 and wearing a grey sweatshirt,
blue jeans and Timberland boots.
A police helicopter was assisting officers on the ground –
wearing bulletproof vests and carrying guns – with the
search for the shooter and the FBI were also investigating.
Cameras at the scene filmed police taking a white man in a
grey T-shirt into a nearby Marriott hotel – but law
enforcement officials said they were still looking for the
gunman.
Local media said the more than 150-year-old Emmanuel AME
church has a predominantly black congregation and is one of
the oldest in the country.
Fox News reported that a bible study session is held in the
basement every Wednesday evening.
The church’s pastor, Clementa Pinckney, is also a state
senator and is thought to have been in the building at the
time of the shooting.
Tearful relatives were seen gathering at the edge of the
police cordon, where they were speaking to emergency
services workers.
Charleston Governor Nikki Haley said in a statement: “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.”
Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush announced he was
cancelling a scheduled appearance in Charleston on
Thursday.
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