Suspect in Charleston church rampage returns to South Carolina
A 21-year-old South Carolina man who lived near swamps, sported white supremacist patches and got a .45-caliber handgun for his birthday in April was in a Charleston jail Thursday night. He was suspected of the cold-blooded killings of nine parishioners during Bible study inside one of America's most renowned black churches.
Dylann Storm Roof was arrested in Shelby, N.C., 245 miles from Charleston, nearly 14 hours after the rampage at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church around 9 p.m. Wednesday. Police were tipped off after a florist heading to work spotted a black Hyundai with South Carolina plates that matched the description of Roof's car.
Charleston Police Chief Gregory Mullen said Roof was "cooperative" when Shelby police took took him into custody. Officers found a gun in the car, but it was not known Thursday night whether it was the gun used in the killings.
Wearing a bullet-proof vest, Roof made his first public appearance when he was taken from the Shelby police headquarters to the local courthouse. He waived extradition back to South Carolina and was put on a plane Thursday afternoon.
After landing in Charleston, he was taken to the Al Cannon Detention Center, where he will be held pending a bond hearing. He is expected to appear in court Friday afternoon, according to media reports.
Police say they thought Roof was the lone gunman within hours of the bloody attack on the Emanuel AME Church, founded in 1816. Asked whether authorities believe Roof had acted alone, Mullen said: "We don't have any reason to believe anyone else was involved."
Among the dead — three men and six women — was the pastor of the church, 41-year-old Clementa Pinckney, who was also a South Carolina state senator. At the South Carolina State House on Thursday, a black drape and a red rose were put over his desk. Flags in the state are flying at half-staff because of the tragedy.
One of the victims died after being taken to the hospital. Three people survived, police said.
A federal law enforcement official who is not authorized to speak publicly confirmed that Roof's father had given him a .45-caliber handgun for his 21st birthday in April. Police are analyzing the weapon recovered from Roof's car after his arrest to see whether it matches the firearm used in the attack and whether it is the same gun he received as a birthday gift.
Authorities believe, as indicated by a witness to the attack, that the gunman may have reloaded multiple times during the assault, the official said. When the gunman entered the church, it is believed that he took a seat close to members of the prayer group, suggesting that the shots were fired at close range.
The official said it is not immediately believed the gunman targeted specific individuals, beyond a desire to attack African Americans. While launching the attack, the official said, the gunman uttered that he intended to "kill black people.'' The gunman also is believed to have told a survivor that he was allowing the person to live to report how the attack occurred, the official said.
Investigators will also determine whether the gunman contacted or visited the church to determine a schedule of activities to select as possible targets.
Surveillance video showed the gunman entering the church. Charleston County Coroner Rae Wilson said he initially didn't appear threatening.
"The suspect entered the group and was accepted by them, as they believed that he wanted to join them in this Bible study," she said. Then, "he became very aggressive and violent."
At one point, members of the group tried to get him to stop, Johnson told WIS News. "He just said 'I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go,'" Johnson said.
Sylvia Johnson, Pinckney's cousin, said one of the survivors told her that the gunman reloaded five times during the ordeal.
President Obama addressed the nation, expressing sorrow for the tragedy at "a sacred place in the history of Charleston, the history of America." Obama, who said he knew Pinckney, said the country must eventually address the issue of gun violence.
"I've had to make statements like this too many times," Obama said, adding "People were killed because someone who wanted to do harm had no trouble getting a gun."
Aboard Air Force One, Obama spoke with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz said. Obama offered condolences and pledged to make available any federal resources that could support South Carolina, Schultz said.
Within a few hours of the shooting, police were circulating surveillance photos taken outside the church that showed a suspect in a gray sweatsuit and boots and sporting a bowl haircut. He was seen parking his black, four-door sedan and walking into the church.
Acting on tips from the public, police quickly identified the suspect as Roof, who went to high school in Lexington and listed his home address after a recent arrest for trespassing as Eastover, S.C., which sits between Columbia and Congaree National Park.
Police stood watch outside the two-story log-cabin house, near the swamps of the Congaree River, the Post and Courier newspaper reported. A man inside ordered a reporter to leave.
Shelby police were tipped by Debbie Dills, an employee at a florist in Kings Mountain. After spotting the car on Highway 74 and Roof's distinctive bowl-shaped haircut, she called her boss, who notified police, she told WCNC-TV.
"I was very burdened for the people in Charleston," Dills said. "I paid close attention to the pictures on TV, but I thought no. It can't be him."
"I was scared," she added, crying. "I thought. please don't let him think I'm following him."
A Facebook page for Dylann Roof includes a photo of him standing in a swamp of bare cypress tress hung with Spanish moss and wearing a jacket with patches of the racist-era flags of apartheid South Africa and of Rhodesia, the once white-ruled country now called Zimbabwe.
Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League, said the patches could provide clues as to his ideological views.
"No one randomly puts those particular images on clothing or Facebook profiles," Pitcavage said. "That implies intent and a particular world view. This is not someone simply motivated by hate but may have been motivated by a particular ideology as well."
Community organizer Christopher Cason said he felt certain the shootings were racially motivated. "I am very tired of people telling me that I don't have the right to be angry," Cason said. "I am very angry right now."
Lexington County, S.C., court records show Roof was arrested on March 2 on criminal possession of a controlled substance. The records indicate it may be a first offense. The case is pending. He was also jailed on April 26 on a trespassing charge.
Roof's childhood friend, Joey Meek, alerted the FBI after recognizing him in a surveillance camera image, said Meek's mother, Kimberly Konzny, the Associated Press reports. Roof had worn the same sweatshirt while playing Xbox video games in their home recently.
"I don't know what was going through his head," Konzny said. "He was a really sweet kid. He was quiet. He only had a few friends.
The suspect's uncle, Carson Cowles, 56, tells Reuters that he recognized the young man in the surveillance photo as his nephew. Cowles said Roof was given a gun by his father as a 21st birthday present in April.
The incident shook the normally peaceful community that is a magnet for tourists, particularly in the summer.
"No one in this community will forget this night," said Mullen, who called the killings a "hate crime."
In Washington, the Justice Department said its Civil Rights Division, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina are opening a hate crime investigation into the shooting.
Mayor Joseph Riley called the killings "the most unspeakable and heartbreaking tragedy."
"The only reason that someone could walk into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate," Riley said. "It is the most dastardly act that one could possibly imagine, and we will bring that person to justice. ... This is one hateful person."
Emanuel is the oldest AME church in the South and has one of the oldest and largest black congregations south of Baltimore, according to its website. Denmark Vesey, executed for attempting to organize a major slave rebellion in 1822, was one of the founders.
Pinckney, the slain pastor, was a married father of two who was elected to the state Legislature at age 23, making him the youngest member of the House at the time.
"He never had anything bad to say about anybody, even when I thought he should," Rutherford, D-Columbia, said. "He was always out doing work either for his parishioners or his constituents. He touched everybody."
Said Mullen: "This is a tragedy that no community should have to experience. It is senseless. It is unfathomable that someone would walk into a church when people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives."
Pinckney was a native of Beaufort, S.C., and graduated magna cum laude from Allen University in 1995. He received a master's of divinity degree from the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary and a master's degree in public administration from the University of South Carolina. He was elected to the South Carolina House in 1996, when he was 23, and was elected to the state Senate in 2000.
Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement: "The NAACP was founded to fight against racial hatred and we are outraged that 106 years later, we are faced today with another mass hate crime.
"There is no greater coward than a criminal who enters a house of God and slaughters innocent people engaged in the study of scripture."
Contributing: Kevin Johnson in Washington; Alan Gomez, in Miami; Kevin McCoy in New York; Tyler Pager in McLean, Va.; Jane Onyanga-Omara; Michael Winter