A 21-year-old white man has been charged with nine counts of
murder for an attack on a historic black South Carolina church, local police
said on Friday, with media reporting that he had hoped his actions would incite
a race war in the United States.
Dylann Roof is due to face a bail hearing later on Friday,
where he will appear by video link and also face a charge of possession of a
firearm during the commission of a violent crime, the Charleston PoliceDepartment said.
The charges come a day after his arrest in North Carolina,
220 miles (354 km) north of the nearly 200-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal
Church where he shot dead nine black worshippers.
U.S. officials are investigating Roof's attack, in which
four ministers were killed including a Democratic state senator, as a hate
crime. It came in a year of turmoil in the United States, where police killings
of several unarmed black men has provoked angry national debates about race
relations, policing and the criminal justice system.
Roof confessed to the attack and said he intended to set off
new racial confrontations with his attack, CNN reported, citing a law
enforcement source.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley told NBC's
"Today" show on Friday that she would prefer to see Roof tried on
state charges and believed state prosecutors should pursue a death sentence.
"This is an absolute hate crime," said Haley, a
Republican. "We've been talking with the investigators because we've been
going through the interviews, they said they looked pure evil in the eye."
South Carolina is one of just five U.S. states that does not
have a hate crime law, which typically imposes additional penalties on crimes
committed because of a victim's race, gender or sexual orientation.
President Barack Obama said Thursday the attack stirred up
"a dark part" of U.S. history and illustrated the continuing dangers
of the nation's liberal gun laws, which gun-rights supporters say are protected
by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Sister Mary Thecla, from the Daughters of St. Paul, prays
outside the Emanuel African Methodist Epis …
"After a tragedy we all get to sing and hold hands, but
the elephant in the room is guns. South Carolina and the country have gone
gun-crazy," said state Representative Wendell Gilliard, a Democrat who
represents Charleston.
"How many times do we need to come together? How many
times do we need to unite?"
The church, known as "Mother Emanuel," was founded
in the early 19th century by black worshippers who were limited in how they
could practice their faith at white-dominated churches. Burned to the ground in
the late 1820s when one of its founders drafted plans for a slave revolt, the
church was later rebuilt.
Compounding anger over the incident, the South Carolina
capital continues to fly the Confederate battle flag, that was the symbol of
the pro-slavery South during the U.S. Civil War.
In addition to the church's leader and Democratic state
Senator Clementa Pinckney, other victims included three pastors - DePayne
Middleton Doctor, 49; Sharonda Coleman Singleton, 45; and Reverend Daniel
Simmons, 74.
Also killed were Cynthia Hurd, 54, a public library
employee; Susie Jackson, 87; Ethel Lance, 70; Tywanza Sanders, 26; and Myra
Thompson 59, an associate pastor at the church, according to the county
coroner.
Area residents, including a group of nuns, filed past the
historic church early Friday that was the site of Wednesday's shooting. Many
tearfully offered prayers and left flowers near the line of yellow police tape,
behind which law enforcement agents continued to gather evidence.
Social worker Jermaine Jenkins, 25, stopped to pay his
respects and said he believed the outpouring of public grief and support showed
that Roof had failed in his goal of sparking fresh racial unrest.
"I don't think he will succeed in creating a race
war," said Jenkins, who is black
0 Comments