Charleston, SC: 6 women, 3 men killed in shooting at Emanuel AME; authorities asking for help identifying suspect

Post and Courier – by Glenn Smith, Melissa Boughton Robert Behre

Update (7:20 AM): Mullen said investigators are going through all kinds of video, public and private, to try to get more information on the suspect’s whereabouts. Officers throughout the region are assisting in the search — City of Charleston, Charleston County, SLED and FBI were all mentioned.

Mullen noted that there are specific elements that classify a hate crime and could lead to federal prosecution. “There is no doubt in my mind that this is a hate crime,” Mullen said. The U.S. Attorney’s office will make ultimate decision as to whether this will be prosecuted as a hate crime.  

Update (7:15 AM): Police still are not able to identify the victims. Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten will be providing that information as soon as all family members have been notified.

Mullen confirmed that the shooter was in the church for almost an hour attending the prayer meeting with the group before shooting. Three people survived the shooting.

Update (7:07 AM): “This tragedy that we’re addressing right now is undescribable,” Mullen said. “The law enforcement agencies that are working on this are committed and we will capture this individual.”

Update (7:05 AM): “This is a situation that is unacceptable in any society, especially in our society, our city,” said Mullen. He also advised that the suspect is a “very dangerous individual” and authorities do not want people approaching him.

Update (7:02 AM): Charleston Police Chief confirms again that there are a total of nine victims — three males and six females.

Update (6:51 AM): A family assistance center has been established for families of the victims at the Embassy Suites Hotel, according to a release from the City of Charleston. The center will be staffed by local, state and federal victim services personnel and the Charleston Coastal Chaplaincy.

Update (6:05 AM): Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen announced at 6 a.m. that Investigators have surveillance video of the suspect and suspect vehicle in Wednesday’s shooting. Mullen asked for the public’s help identifying gunman.

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A white gunman killed nine people during a prayer meeting at one of Charleston’s oldest and best-known black churches Wednesday night in one of the worst mass shootings in South Carolina history.

Heavily armed law enforcement officers scoured the area into the morning for the man responsible for the carnage inside Emanuel AME Church at 110 Calhoun St. At least one person was said to have survived the rampage.

Police revealed no motive for the 9 p.m. attack, which was reportedly carried out by a young white man. Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said, “I do believe this was a hate crime.”

Mayor Joe Riley called the shooting “a most unspeakable and heartbreaking tragedy.”

“An evil and hateful person took the lives of citizens who had come to worship and pray together,” he said.

Authorities did not identify the dead.

State Sen. Clementa Pinckney is the church’s pastor and was believed to be inside during the shooting. Authorities would not confirm that he was wounded, but church members, friends and political colleagues said he was among the dead.

Riley said city police were being assisted by sheriff’s deputies, the State Law Enforcement Division and the FBI.

Mullen pledged to put all efforts, resources and energy into finding the gunman.

“This is a tragedy that no community should have to experience,” he said. “It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church when people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives, and I can assure you that we’re going to do everything in our power to find this individual, to lock him up and to make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else.”

The city will hold a news conference at 7 a.m. Thursday. A group of AME pastors plans to hold a prayer vigil at noon.

The shooting occurred on the eve of the eighth anniversary of another local tragedy, the death of nine Charleston firefighters in the June 18, 2007, Sofa Super Store blaze in West Ashley. A ceremony is planned for later today to honor the fallen firefighters as the city now grapples with another mass loss of life.

Church members at Emanuel AME were gathered for a prayer meeting when gunfire erupted in the 19th century building. A female survivor told family members that the gunman initially sat down in the church for a bit before standing up and opening fire, according to Dot Scott, president of the Charleston NAACP.

The gunman reportedly told the woman he was letting her live so she could tell everyone else what happened, Scott said.

Police spokesman Charles Francis described the suspect as a 21-year-old white man in a gray sweatshirt/hoodie and jeans with Timberland boots. He has a slender build.

Police and emergency vehicles swarmed several blocks surrounding Henrietta and Calhoun streets, just east of Marion Square. Barricades blocked off several streets to traffic, and police asked nearby residents to leave their homes.

Helicopters circled overhead and officers with dogs searched nearby properties.

Though information was scant, the scope of the tragedy quickly became apparent. Dozens of law enforcement officers, several carrying military-style rifles, fanned out across the area as a team of coroners arrived. Several crisis chaplains also rushed to the area.

State Sen. Marlon Kimpson, D-Charleston, said he was praying for Pinckney and for “our Mother Emanuel AME Church,” as it’s affectionately called by many parishioners. It is the South’s oldest black congregation south of Baltimore.

“I ask the nation to keep Charleston in our prayers,” he said.

Gov. Nikki Haley said her family also was praying for those touched by the killings.

“While we do not yet know all of the details, we do know that we’ll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another,” she said. “Please join us in lifting up the victims and their families with our love and prayers.”

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott said it was “absolutely despicable” for such violence to occur in a place where people come together to “laugh, love and rejoice in God’s name.”

“My heart is breaking for Charleston and South Carolina tonight,” he said.

Outside Medical University Hospital, the area trauma center where the wounded were taken, Jon Quil Lance stepped away from the building to smoke a cigarette and think about his grandmother, Ethel Lance, who he’d heard was shot in the church.

“I’m lost, I’m lost,” he said. “Granny was the heart of the family.” He said his grandmother had worked at the church for more than 30 years.

“She’s a Christian, hardworking; I could call my granny for anything. I don’t have anyone else like that.” He said he didn’t know her condition. “I don’t even know if she’s alive now.” He threw his hands up. “I don’t even know if my grandmother is alive.”

He paced up and down Ashley Avenue, and his thoughts gathered momentum. “What was this guy thinking? That dude shot a bunch of elderly people! Now people are going to be afraid to go to church. I don’t know what’s going to come of this. I’ll tell you this, I’m not the only one praying tonight.”

At 12:45 a.m., as word spread about the deaths, Lance fell to the ground and sobbed. “Somebody better get that (expletive).” A friend cradled him at the hospital’s entrance. Officers ushered loved ones inside.

Back at the scene, crowds of onlookers gathered outside a hotel and a gas station just up the street from the church to watch the police activity on a hot, humid night.

A few impromptu prayer circles emerged, and rumors quickly spread through the crowd about the death toll.

A white male was briefly detained at the Shell gas station at Meeting and Calhoun streets. Two loud pops were heard and a crowd of people rushed to the front of the gas station where police had the male on the ground and were handcuffing him.

The white male had on a backpack and was carrying a camera and recording device, which fell on the ground near where he was detained.

David Corrie, 21, of Ladson, said he was walking out of the store and the officers forced him to get down. He said the officers told him they were just doing their jobs, and he fit the description.

National Action Network James Johnson confirmed early Thursday morning that Sen. Clementa Pinckney was among the nine dead in the shooting.

He added that he still wants the coroner to confirm it to fully believe it.

Johnson said he and Pinckney were friends through civil rights activism.

“I had just spoken to him about two weeks ago,” he said, adding that they had also walked together after the Walter Scott shooting in North Charleston. “It’s very numb; it’s sad. No one expects to go to church to worship their God and be shot dead.”

Pinckney was in Columbia earlier in the day for the Legislature’s continued session but returned to Charleston and was in the church for a service at the time of the shooting, a Statehouse Democratic caucus member said.

Pinckney, 41, was elected to the S.C. House of Representatives in 1996 at the age of 23.

In 2000, he was elected to the state Senate at 27.

His Senate district includes southern Charleston County and parts of Jasper, Beaufort, Colleton, and Hampton counties.

The Rev. Joe Darby, former longtime pastor of Morris Brown AME several blocks away, was at his Charleston home when he heard the news. He rushed to the Embassy Suites Hotel around the corner from the shooting to join fellow church members in his district. Darby now is presiding elder of the 33 churches in the AME Church’s Beaufort District.

By 11 p.m. Wednesday night, he still had no news about who had been shot and whether Pinckney was among them.

Normally eloquent and outspoken, he was at a loss to describe what happened. “We just don’t know,” he said softly.

As the shock of the shooting began to sink in, Riley said, “I know I speak to all the citizens of our community as I express my most heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the Emanuel AME church members who were killed tonight. We will comfort and support them as we work through this time of great heartbreak.”

Tony Bartelme, Schuyler Kropf, Andrew Knapp and Fred Rindge contributed to this report.

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150618/PC16/150619404/1180/6-women-3-men-killed-in-shooting-at-emanuel-ame-authorities-asking-for-help-identifying-suspect