Dylann Roof, 21, is in police custody after shooting up a church in Charleston, South Carolina on the night of June 17.
Members of the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church were in the middle of bible study when Roof, who had been sitting among them, stood up and announced that he’d come to shoot black people, witnesses said according to reports by authories.
Nine people were killed — six women and three men, including the church’s pastor Rev. Clementa Pinckney. There were only three survivors.
The suspect was arrested in Shelby, North Carolina, around 245 miles from the scene of the crime, after officers received a tip from a local.
President Obama addressed the nation shortly after calling the church shooting an act of “senseless murders.”
“Any death of this sort is a tragedy. Any shooting involving multiple victims is a tragedy,” he said. “There is something particularly heartbreaking about death happening in a place in which we seek solace and we seek peace.”
In suggesting improvements in gun laws, Obama said “We do know that once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this kind of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. It is in our power to do something about it.”
photo credit: washingtonpost.com
