An unconscionable 'hate' crime out of the "Holy City" CHARLESTON, S.C. — Police are investigating a shooting downtown that may have resulted in multiple fatalities, and authorities say a bomb threat has been called in at the scene. The Charleston Police Department said early Thursday that no victims had been identified. Police were asking media and bystanders to move in the wake of the threat, WCSC was reporting. Charleston Mayor Joe RIley confirmed to the Charleston Post and Courier that there had been fatalities, but he did not give a number. He was expected to speak at a press conference in the early midnight hours of Thursday morning. The news organization indicated that nine people had been shot, but police were only saying they had no information on victims. South Carolina Rep. Peter McCoy tweeted that he heard nine people were confirmed dead. Police said the shooting took place at an address that corresponds with that of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The house of worship is the oldest AME church in the South and is led by South Carolina State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, a Democrat. The church has one of the oldest and largest black congregations south of Baltimore, according to its website. Denmark Vesey, executed for attempting to organize a major slave rebellion, was one of the founders. Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church sits at 110 Calhoun St. in Charleston, S.C. (Photo: Facebook) Pinckney was believed to be inside during the shootin, his legislative colleague, state Sen. Marlon Kimpson, told the Post and Courier. The shooting took place at about 9 p.m. ET, Charleston police said via Twitter. The gunman is still on the loose, police told the Post and Courier. The suspect is a clean-shaven white male about 21-years-old and is wearing a gray sweatshirt or hoodie, blue jeans and Timberland boots, officials said. The FBI and chaplains were on the scene, Post and Courier reporter Melissa Boughton tweeted. An emergency medical worker told people on the street to "drive far away or to go indoors," Boughton tweeted at about 9:45 p.m. EDT.
What a travesty...Hearing 9 deaths so far. Killing them in a church. Are you kidding me? what a piece of shit...Chief says it was hate crime. This story is going to around for a while
Hang him by the balls! Black, blue, white whatever color shouldn't matter right now. This guy who did this needs to be brought to justice now! This obviously took some planning because a bomb threat was called in making things a lot more difficult. Its 2015 and i can't believe what I'm waking up to this morning. Sent from my LG-LS720 using Tapatalk
Fighting with illness and stayed home today and first thing I saw on TV was this. I am disgusted. May God bless the souls of the departed.
has radical islam been mentioned? I mean you have to be a whacko to shoot up innocent people anyway but to do it in a church?
More likely radical white supremacist. Them boys been known to take it to the church folk now and again.
Charleston paper is reporting that the gunman sat with the prayer group for possibly as much as an hour before he stood up and started shooting young white dude- amish-style haircut, maybe a wig who knows
LTJF, even taking your assuming nature into consideration maybe you should actually try to find out what the guy's motive was before you take it upon yourself to make some cynical assumption. "You rape our women, you're taking over our country, and you have to go." Doesn't sound like radical Islam. Even in the midst of such a monstrous event, leave it to above-it-all you to wax funny with the lame provincial syntax.
Get off your high horse you weirdo. I didn't make any assumptions, I asked a question based on what I knew. I hadn't read that quote.
How about a radical anti-Christian? How do we know that this hate-crime is based on race and not religion?
Hack, besides his "you're taking over the country" comments made just prior to him opening fire (according to witnesses there), in this Facebook photo check out the two flags he's sporting on his jacket: one represents then-apartheid Rhodesia and the other apartheid South Africa. Both were countries with white minority rule. (Rhodesia being today's Zimbabwe).
Didn't that children school shooter up north have that same haircut? Sent from my LG-LS720 using Tapatalk
Live updates: FBI reportedly identifies Charleston, S.C. shooter as Dylann Roof 'Police were seen at his mother's house, his uncle told Reuters, adding that he recognized the man as his nephew. "The more I look at him, the more I'm convinced, that's him," Carson Cowles, 56, told the news service in an interview. Cowles described Roof as "quiet and soft-spoken" and said his father recently gave the suspect a .45-caliber gun as a birthday gift, Reuters said.
