Charleston shooting: nine killed in ‘hate-crime’ attack

The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church describes itself on its website as the oldest AME church in the south. The city’s police chief has described the attack, by a white man, as a “hate crime.”

Gunfire was heard inside the church around 9pm on Wednesday night and soon after eight people were found dead inside. A ninth person died after being taken to hospital and one other is wounded.

The suspect is described as a white 21-year-old man and police tweeted that he was wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and boots. A police helicopter with a searchlight hovered over the area of the shooting as officers combed the ground but the man still has not been captured by police.

Police arrest Charleston suspect Dylann Roof

Gregory Mullen, the chief of police, said “it is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church when people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives.”

The victims have not yet been identified but Reverend Al Sharpton, a New York-based civil rights leader, tweeted that Clementa Pinckney, the church’s pastor and a member of the state Senate, was among the dead.

Rev. Clements Pinckney, a SC legislator is among the 9 killed in SC church. I am reminded that he helped lead our prayer vigil for Scott.

— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) June 18, 2015

Soon after the shooting a group of men gathered in a circle in front of a hotel near the church. During the impromptu prayer service the Reverend James Johnson, a local civil rights activist, said, “we pray for the families, they’ve got a long road ahead of them.”

Police took a man with a backpack and a camera into custody but later said they were still searching for a suspect in the shooting.

The Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, the brother of former president George W. Bush and son of president George H. W. Bush, has cancelled an appearance he had been due to make at an event in Charleston on Thursday.