Law enforcement officials have arrested 21 year-old Dylann Storm Roof for the June 17 attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in which 9 were killed, with one wounded. The church, known as “AME” or “Mother Emmanuel”, was founded in 1816 and is the oldest black church south of Baltimore, Maryland. The church’s congregation formed because they faced racism at another Charleston Episcopal church, and for almost two centuries AME has been a local force in the fights against slavery, white supremacy and the Jim Crow apartheid regime.
Roof was named to the police by his uncle, Carson Cowles, following circulation of CCTV footage. Cowles has also reported that Roof received a .45 caliber pistol from his father for his 21st birthday, though it is not known whether that was the firearm used in the attack.
A photo of Roof wearing a jacket emblazoned with white supremacist iconography–the flags of Rhodesia and apartheid-era South Africa– does not appear to be a typical “selfie”, and investigators are examining whether he was posing for another photographer and what role that person might have played in the shooting. Officials are also still investigating if Roof met with any collaborators before or after the attack, which is being treated as a hate crime.
Charleston #BlackLivesMatter activists are referring to the attack as an an act of “white supremacist terrorism” in Facebook posts. The #BlackLivesMatter movement in the region mobilized in April against the police murder of Walter Scott in nearby North Charleston.
The BlackLivesMatterCHS page has called for community gatherings throughout today and on Sunday:
There are three values that will strengthen us today: (1) Education – We will meet at the Denmark Vesey statue in Hampton Park @10am (2) Prayer- a family that prays together, stands together: meet at the square to pray @ 12pm (3) Unified Action- March together from Francis Marion to the Old Slave Market to express our distaste for this blatant act of racially charged domestic terrorism. Let us stand as a family. Let us speak as a family. We have had our Jimmy Lee with Walter Scott and our church bombing in this heinous massacre. This is our home and our safety and security has been jeopardized! The spirit of the terrorist John C Calhoun has once again struck our family. Also, Sunday 6pm at Marion Square we will gather for the burial of white supremacy.
President Barack Obama, speaking to the media, did not refer to the attack as an act of domestic terrorism, but did note that “Once again, innocent people were killed, in part, because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun.” He went on to say that other “advanced countries” with stronger gun control laws do not face “mass violence” with nearly the same frequency.
Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. announced at a press conference that a “Mother Emmanuel Hope Fund” has been started with a $5000 grant from the city of Charleston to benefit the church and families affected by the attack. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley fought back tears to state that “We woke up today and the heart and soul of South Carolina was broken.”
One of those murdered in the attack, AME pastor Clementa Pinckney, was a standing South Carolina state senator, and has appeared with the Rev. Al Sharpton to oppose police brutality. He was acquainted with President Obama and recently campaigned for 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
