9 Killed During Prayer Service in South Carolina Church

18 Jun, 2015

An intense manhunt was under way Thursday for a young white man who joined a prayer meeting and then opened fire inside a historic black church in downtown Charleston, killing nine people, including the pastor, in what authorities called a hate crime.

Police released photographs from surveillance video Thursday morning of the suspect and a dark colored sedan that may have been the getaway vehicle.

“This is a very dangerous individual,” Police Chief Greg Mullen said. “We want to identify this individual and arrest him before he hurts anyone else.”

The suspect stayed for nearly an hour at the prayer meeting Wednesday night before shooting the victims – six females and three males, Mullen said.

Mullen did not give other details and said names would be released after families were notified.

But State House Minority leader Todd Rutherford told The Associated Press that the Emanuel AME Church’s pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, was among those killed.

Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two who was elected to the state House at age 23, making him the youngest member of the House at the time.

The suspect was described as a white man in his early 20s.

Mullen said he believed the attack was a hate crime and a Justice Department spokesman said federal officials were opening a hate crime investigation. The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to be quoted by name because the federal investigation had not been announced.

Mullen said he had no reason to think the suspect has left the Charleston area, but was distributing information about him and the vehicle around the country.

The Emmanuel AME church is a historic African-American church that traces its roots to 1816, when several churches split from Charleston’s Methodist Episcopal church.

AP

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