Dylann Roof, 21, of Lexington, South
Carolina, is in custody after, police allege, he opened fire during a Bible
study class at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in
Charleston, a senior law enforcement official who was briefed on the
investigation tells CNN. Nine people were killed in the shooting. The gunman allegedly
told the victims before the shooting, "You rape our women and you're
taking over our country. And you have to go," said Sylvia Johnson, a
cousin of the church's slain pastor. She cited survivors of the shooting and
was quoted by CNN affiliate WIS.
The man suspected of
killing nine people Wednesday night at a historic 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.
A senior law
enforcement source told CNN the suspect's father had recently bought him a
.45-caliber gun for his 21st birthday in April.
President Barack Obama
mourned the violence and the victims, saying, "Any death of this sort is a
tragedy. Any shooting involving multiple victims is a tragedy. There is
something particularly heartbreaking about death happening in a place in which
we seek solace, we seek peace."
Wooten told reporters
that the victims all suffered gunshot wounds and died as a result of them.
Johnson said survivors
recounted the man coming into the church, asking for Pinckney and sitting next
to him during a prayer meeting for an hour. He started shooting and reloaded
five times, she said.
When a man pleaded
with him to stop, the shooter replied, "You rape our women and you're
taking over our country. And you have to go," she said.
A law enforcement
official says witnesses told authorities the gunman stood up and said he was
there "to shoot black people."
Police were searching
for more information about Roof (whose last name is rhymes with
"cough"), and trying to determine if he had any links to hate groups.
Authorities released a
mug shot of him from Lexington County Thursday. It was taken after a
trespassing arrest in April. According to an arrest warrant from a February
incident, Roof had an unlabeled pill bottle with a drug believed to be
suboxone, which is used to treat opiate addiction. Roof told police a
friend gave him drugs. The status of the cases is unclear.
In an image tweeted by
the Berkeley County, South Carolina, government, Roof is 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.
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