Cool Breeze

I'm anticipating the Politically Correct Spin On This Crime by 'Ethnic Sympathcizers'!

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — An intense manhunt was underway Thursday for a young white man who joined a prayer meeting and then opened fire inside a historic black church in downtown Charleston, k*****g nine people, including the pastor. Authorities called it a h**e crime.

Charleston police identified the suspect as Dylann Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina. He may be driving a black Hyundai, police spokeswoman Barbara Vaughn said.

"This is a very dangerous individual," Police Chief Greg Mullen said during a Thursday morning news conference.

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

The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church's pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, was among those k**led, State House Minority leader Todd Rutherford told The Associated Press.

Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two who was elected to the state House at 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."

This shooting "should be a warning to us all that we do have a problem in our society," said state Rep. Wendell Gilliard, a Democrat whose district includes the church. "We need action. There's a race problem in our country. There's a gun problem in our country. We need to act on them quickly."

Mullen said names of the victims would be released once families have been notified.

The FBI is involved, and a Justice Department spokesman said federal officials were opening a h**e crime investigation. The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity because the federal investigation had not been officially 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.

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. called the shooting "an unfathomable and unspeakable act by somebody filled with h**e and with a deranged mind."

"Of all cities, in Charleston, to have a horrible h**eful person go into the church and k**l people there to pray and worship with each other is something that is beyond any comprehension and is not explained," Riley said. "We are going to put our arms around that church and that church family."

A few bouquets of flowers tied to a police barricade formed a small but growing memorial Thursday morning a block away from the church.

"Today I feel like it's 9-11 again," Bob Dyer, who works in the area, said after leaving an arrangement of yellow flowers wrapped in plastic. "I'm in shock."

Charleston residents Samuel Ward and Evangeline Simmons stood silently at the barricade with arms around each other. Simmons said she belongs to another AME congregation.

"It's like it's just trying to strip away part of your faith," Simmons said. "But it just makes you stronger."

In a statement, NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks condemned 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," Brooks said.

The attack came two months after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, Walter Scott, by a white police officer in neighboring North Charleston that sparked major protests and highlighted racial tensions in the area. The officer has been charged with murder, and the shooting prompted South Carolina lawmakers to push through a bill helping all police agencies in the state get body cameras. Pinckney was a sponsor of that bill.

Soon after Wednesday night's shooting, a group of pastors huddled together praying in a circle across the street.

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."

Even before Scott's shooting in April, Cason said he had been part of a group meeting with police and local leaders to try to shore up relations.

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

One of its founders, Denmark Vesey, tried to organize a s***e revolt in 1822. He was caught, and white landowners had his church burned in revenge. Parishioners worshipped underground until after the Civil War.

___

Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Charleston, South Carolina, Eric Tucker in Washington and AP Photographer David Goldman contributed to this report. Houston we have a Problem!

dennisimoto Loc: Washington State (West)

A sister of one of the wounded victims reported that Mr. Roof said, "You people rape our women and take all our stuff. You have to go." Not a h**e crime? What does it take?

Super Dave Loc: Realville, USA

1 - He'll get maximum sentence if he's convicted. Whether or not he h**ed the people he murdered is kind of moot.

2 - What if this was a white person that felt like he was a black person at the time? Is it still a h**e crime?

dennisimoto Loc: Washington State (West)

No. Then it would just be a get together of one of the city's drug gangs.

dennisimoto Loc: Washington State (West)

Our "President" is telling us once more that the root of this crime is a gun in the hands of a left hand threaded wing-nut. "We need to pass tougher gun laws." Well, this wing nut's Dad bought him the gun. The Left's answer to that is "don't let anyone buy guns, period." Had there been even one person in the group last night with a concealed carry permit it could have had a whole different outcome.

righty Loc: Tenn

This is such a travesty and unnecessary crime for all races of America. But we can not and should not lower ourselves to these standards by calling it a h**e crime until we have proof the scumbag did it because of h**e. A white person k*****g another race, or visa versa does not in of itself make it a h**e crime. That is the problem today, people are to quick to judge and cause problems long before the t***h comes out. One person claiming that the shooter said, "you people rape our women and take our stuff" is not enough evidence to claim its h**e. I mean if the sicko was concerned about white women being raped, then why did he k**l 6 women? One would think the males would have been targeted. We don't know if the women said what she said because he was white, we don't know if he in fact said that, we just don't know. Now if the facts come out and it proves it was due to h**e, then please scream from the roof tops, but until stand together as Americans, pray for the families of the victims and that this coward be brought to justice. Just sayin

Cool Breeze

This animal is definitely a crazed lunatic. Rape our woman? Steal our stuff? Sounds like some r****t indoctrination to me.

fullsailale Loc: washington

yea, like less dead people.

Cool Breeze

Well here we go. Let's see. You enter a Church. You rant. You murder 9 innocent people. You run. What kind of "facts" are you searching for? Curious?"

Cool Breeze

There you have it. A NRA Gun Kook popping off. Man are these guys sick or what? They see nothing wrong with bringing a gun to Church!

righty Loc: Tenn

Umm that it was a h**e crime. Just because he was white does not make it so, I would say the same thing if the bastid was black and shot up a white church. Was the Newtown shooting a h**e crime? I mean maybe he h**ed kids. See what I mean? I have an investigative background and need more than what has been put out thus far to prove true or not. One person saying he said those things is not evidence to suggest otherwise. Did she say it because she felt it was due to h**e because he was white? Did he in fact say it? The point I'm making, as I have said many times over with other issues is let the facts come out before we judge, that only makes matters worse for all Americans.

Cool Breeze

Let us reason together. 1. R****t Kook murders worshipers in Church. 2. Of course it's Obama's fault. 3. Where is my pillow case? 4. Hello Moron! LOL

Super Dave Loc: Realville, USA

I don't equate rape or theft with a specific race. I fail to see that conclusion.

But you're right. His legos upstairs are a bit loose.

dennisimoto Loc: Washington State (West)

Because there is nothing inherently wrong with bringing a gun to church. Obama's bodyguards (Secret Service) do it all the time. We have these places we call "Gun Free." Schools, colleges, hospitals, Starbucks, churches ... If I were to write a program that displayed all of the gun free zones in my town I would have each one show up as a target. Concentric red & white circles. Because that is how the kooks & crazies see them. They know that those are places that have potential victims who are all unarmed. In several mass shooting sites, Columbine, Newtown, as soon as a person with a gun showed up the perpetrators shot themselves. These people are crazy, not stupid, and yet the Left believes that, "If we only pass the right law all of this will go away." First clue," criminals are criminal because they don't obey laws!!!

fullsailale Loc: washington

talk about stereo typing. i am neither a nra member or kook. you are the kook i***t for laying claims about something and somebody you know nothing about.