Story highlights
- Dylann Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina, was arrested Thursday in Shelby, N.C.
- The shooter spent an hour at a prayer meeting before opening fire, police chief says
- Eight died at the scene in downtown Charleston, South Carolina; a ninth died at a hospital
• Charleston church shooting suspect Dylann Roof has been taken into custody in Shelby, North Carolina, law enforcement officers said.
• Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina, is the suspect in Wednesday's deadly shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, city police said Thursday.
• Witnesses say the gunman stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people," a law enforcement official said. The shooter is also thought to have used a handgun, according to the official.
[Full story]
They got him.
The man suspected of killing nine people Wednesday night at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, was arrested Thursday morning about 245 miles (395 kilometers) away in Shelby, North Carolina, law enforcement authorities said.
Dylann Roof.
Dylann Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina, was taken into custody without incident about 11:15 a.m. during a traffic stop, Charleston police Chief Greg Mullen said Thursday morning. He said local police were acting on a BOLO (be-on-the-lookout) notice that included a vehicle description, the license tag and the suspect's name.
Roof was armed with a gun when he was arrested, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. It's not clear if it's the same firearm he allegedly used in the shooting.
A senior law enforcement source told CNN the suspect's father had recently bought him a .45-caliber gun for his 21st birthday.
EXPAND IMAGE
The slayings took place Wednesday night inside the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, near the heart of Charleston's tourist district. The man spent an hour in a prayer meeting before he opened fire, Mullen said Thursday morning.
A law enforcement official says witnesses told them the gunman stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people."
Police were searching for information about Roof. A picture of him on social media showed him wearing a jacket with what appear to be the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and nearby Rhodesia, a former British colony that was ruled by a white minority until it became independent in 1980 and changed its name to Zimbabwe.
Six females and three males were killed, Mullen said. Three people survived, including a woman who received a chilling message from the shooter.
"Her life was spared, and (she was) told, 'I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to spare you, so you can tell them what happened,' " Charleston NAACP President Dot Scott told CNN. Scott said she heard this from the victims' family members.
Federal authorities have opened a hate crime investigation into the shooting at the oldest AME church in the South, the Department of Justice said.
"The only reason someone would walk into a church and shoot people that were praying is hate," Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said.
The Rev. Clementa Pinckney speaks at the church in Charleston in December 2012.
Among the victims was the church's politically active pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, his cousin, South Carolina state Sen. Kent Williams, told CNN.
Pinckney was also a state senator and one of the black community's spokesmen after the slaying of an unarmed man by a North Charleston police officer this year.
There were 13 people inside the church when the shooting happened -- the shooter, the nine people who were killed and three survivors, South Carolina state Sen. Larry Grooms, who was briefed by law enforcement, told CNN. Two of the survivors were not harmed, he said.
It was not clear if the man targeted any individual.
"We don't know if anybody was targeted other than the church itself," Mullen said.
Historic significance
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church has been a presence in Charleston since 1816, when African-American members of Charleston's Methodist Episcopal Church formed their own congregation after a dispute over burial grounds.
It was burned to the ground at one point, but rebuilt. Throughout its history, it overcame obstacle after obstacle -- destroyed by an earthquake, banned by the state. But its church members persevered, making it the largest African-American church in terms of seating space in Charleston today.
Mullen said video cameras at the church showed a suspect is in his early 20s, standing 5 feet, 9 inches tall. Police said he may be driving a black Hyundai with vehicle tag LGF330.
Police described the gunman as clean-shaven with a slender build and sandy blond hair. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt, bluejeans and Timberland boots.
On Thursday morning, police handed out images of the man and his car taken from surveillance footage and asked for the public's help in identifying him. Officials said they thought he was still in the Charleston area, but they contacted law enforcement authorities elsewhere to be on the lookout.
A call for healing
Authorities said they were shocked not only by the killings but that the violence occurred in a house of worship.
"People in prayer Wednesday evening. A ritual, a coming together, praying, worshiping God. An awful person to come in and shoot them is inexplicable," Mayor Riley said.
The killing put the nation's spotlight once again on the Charleston region. Several months ago, Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, was fatally shot in the back by a North Charleston police officer, a killing that was captured on video.
Pinckney backed a bill to make body cameras mandatory for all police officers in South Carolina.
"Body cameras help to record what happens. It may not be the golden ticket, the golden egg, the end-all-fix-all, but it helps to paint a picture of what happens during a police stop," Pinckney said in April.
Riley, who's seen Charleston go through ups and downs during his 40 years as mayor, said the city must immediately start the healing process. A community prayer meeting will be held Friday at the College of Charleston, not far from the church, he said.
"We are going to put our arms around that church and that church family."
After the shooting, church and community members converged on the area to pray in the street, often while holding hands.
Dot Scott, the NAACP leader, said family and friends of the victims gathered at the Embassy Suites motel near the church after the shooting. The city set up a victims' assistance center there.
"There were at least 50 or more people there," she said. "There were families of the victims, grandchildren, council members and a bunch of people there."
Scott said that's where she heard about the shooter sparing the woman in the church.
"I did not hear this verbatim from the almost victim, I heard it from at least half a dozen other folks that were there and family of the victims," she said. "There seems to be no question that this is what the shooter said."
'Sick to our stomachs'
The church sits in an area of Charleston densely packed with houses of worship and well-preserved old buildings. The streets of the neighborhood are normally filled with tourists.
Charleston, as several church leaders pointed out, is known as the "Holy City" because of its numerous churches and tolerant attitude toward different denominations.
Early Thursday morning, residents stood in circles, hands clasped and heads bowed, as they prayed.
"Like everybody out here, we're sick to our stomachs that this could happen in a church," said Rep. Dave Mack, a friend of the church's pastor.
They called for justice, but also for calm. Theirs is a strong community, they said, and this incident wouldn't tear them apart.
The president of the NAACP expressed his outrage over the shooting.
"There is no greater coward than a criminal who enters a house of God and slaughters innocent people engaged in the study of scripture," Cornell William Brooks said.
Republican presidential candidates canceled campaign events in South Carolina. Jeb Bush canceled a scheduled town hall in Charleston on Thursday.
"As the #Charleston police deem this horrific act a hate crime," the King Center
tweeted, "we pray vigorously that this person's hate does not cultivate more hate."
