CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — As Dylann Storm Roof awaited his first hearing on nine charges of murder, the people of Charleston sought Friday to repudiate whatever a gunman would hope to accomplish by killing black community leaders inside one of the nation’s most important African-American churches.
“A hateful person came to this community with some crazy idea he’d be able to divide, but all he did was unite us and make us love each other even more,” Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said as he described plans for an evening vigil at a sports arena near the church.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said the state will “absolutely” want the death penalty for Roof, who opened fire after sitting through a Wednesday night Bible study session inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
A steady stream of people brought flowers and notes and shared somber thoughts at a growing memorial in front of the church, which President Barack Obama called “a sacred place in the history of Charleston and in the history of America.”
Roof, 21, had complained while getting drunk on vodka recently that “blacks were taking over the world” and that “someone needed to do something about it for the white race,” according to Joey Meek, who tipped the FBI when he saw his friend on surveillance images.
Apprehended in North Carolina after a motorist recognized him and helped alert police, Roof was shackled, handcuffed and returned in a bulletproof vest Thursday to Charleston, where a bond hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday. Most such hearings are conducted by video link from the county jail where he is being held.
In addition to the nine murder counts, Roof is charged with possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, police said Friday. That’s a common charge in South Carolina when a gun is involved, whether it was legally owned or not.
The victims included a state senator who doubled as the church’s lead pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney; as well as several other pastors and church elders, a library manager, high school coaches, a government administrator, a college enrollment counselor and a recent college graduate — six women and three men who initially welcomed Roof into the church.
“The suspect entered the group and was accepted by them, as they believed that he wanted to join them in this Bible study,” she said. Then, “he became very aggressive and violent.”
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch a hate crime investigation has begun. Obama pointed to lax gun controls as a factor, and complained that Washington politics have shut down efforts to require universal background checks for gun purchases.
Most of the candidates campaigning to replace him avoided mentioning guns at all.
Roof said he used birthday money from his parents to buy a .45 Glock pistol before the attack, Meek said. He must have hidden the weapon, because Charleston County Coroner Rae Wilson said he didn’t initially appear threatening to the church members.
Meek called the FBI after recognizing Roof in the surveillance footage, down to the stained sweatshirt he wore while they played Xbox videogames the morning of the attack.
“I didn’t THINK it was him. I KNEW it was him,” Meek told The Associated Press after being interviewed by investigators.
It’s not clear whether Roof had any connection to the 16 white supremacist organizations operating in South Carolina, but he appears to be a “disaffected white supremacist,” based on his Facebook page, said Richard Cohen, president of Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama.
On his Facebook page, Roof displayed the flags of defeated white-ruled regimes, posing with a Confederate flags plate on his car and wearing a jacket with stitched-on flag patches from apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia, which is now black-led Zimbabwe.
His previous record includes misdemeanor drug and trespassing charges.
Spilling blood inside a black church — especially “Mother Emanuel,” founded in 1816 — evoked painful memories nationwide, a reminder that black churches so often have been the targets of racist violence.
A church founder, Denmark Vesey, was hanged after trying to organize a slave revolt in 1822, and white landowners burned the church in revenge, leaving parishioners to worship underground until after the Civil War. The congregation rebuilt and grew stronger, eventually winning campaigns for voting rights and political representation.
Pinckney recalled his church’s history in a 2013 sermon, saying “we don’t see ourselves as just a place where we come to worship, but as a beacon and as a bearer of the culture.”
“What the church is all about,” Pinckney said, is the “freedom to be fully what God intends us to be and have equality in the sight of God. And sometimes you got to make noise to do that. Sometimes you may have to die like Denmark Vesey to do that.”
Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two and a Democrat who spent 19 years in the South Carolina legislature after he was first elected at 23, becoming the youngest member of the House.
The other victims were Cynthia Hurd, 54; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Myra Thompson, 59; Ethel Lance, 70; Susie Jackson, 87; and the reverends DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49; Sharonda Singleton, 45; and Daniel Simmons Sr., 74.
The mayor said a Mother Emanuel Hope Fund has been set up to help pay for funerals and other family expenses, and help the church continue its work. Anyone can contribute at Wells Fargo bank branches, by mail, or — soon — online, he said.
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Contributors include Russ Bynum, Alex Sanz, Meg Kinnard, David Goldman and Jacob Jordan in Charleston, South Carolina; Mitch Weiss in Columbia, South Carolina; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Eric Tucker in Washington.
