On this date, June
17, 2015, Nine people are killed in a mass shooting at Emanuel
African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston,
South Carolina. I will post information about the mass shooting from
Wikipedia.
Charleston church shooting
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Location
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Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina, United
States
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Date
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June 17, 2015
c. 9:05 p.m. – c. 9:11 p.m. (EDT) |
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Target
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African American churchgoers
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Attack type
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Weapons
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Deaths
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9
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Non-fatal injuries
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1
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Suspected
perpetrator
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Dylann Roof
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Motive
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The
Charleston church shooting (also known as the Charleston church
massacre) was a mass shooting that took place at the Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South
Carolina, United States, on the evening of June 17, 2015. During a prayer
service, nine people were killed by a gunman, including the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney; a tenth victim survived.
The morning after the attack, police arrested a suspect, later identified as
21-year-old Dylann Roof, in Shelby, North Carolina. Roof later confessed
that he committed the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war.
The
United States Department of Justice
investigated whether the shooting was a hate crime
or an act of domestic terrorism, eventually indicting Roof
on 33 federal hate crime charges. Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church is one of the United States' oldest black
churches and has long been a site for community organization around civil
rights. Roof is to be indicted on federal hate crime charges, and has been
charged with nine counts of murder by the State of South Carolina. If
convicted, he could face a sentence of death or thirty years to life in prison. A
website apparently published by Roof included a manifesto
detailing his beliefs on race, as well as several photographs showing him
posing with emblems associated with white
supremacy. Roof's photos of the Confederate battle flag triggered debate on
its modern display.
Background
The
200-year-old church has played an important role in the history of South
Carolina, including the slavery era,
the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Lives Matter
movement in the 2010s. The church was founded in 1816 and it is the oldest African
Methodist Episcopal Church in the South, often referred to as
"Mother Emanuel". It is the oldest historically black congregation south of Baltimore. When one of the church's
co-founders, Denmark Vesey,
was suspected of planning a slave rebellion in Charleston in 1822, 35 people,
including Vesey, were hanged and the church was burned down. Charleston
citizens accepted the claim that a slave rebellion was to begin at the stroke
of midnight on June 16, 1822, and to erupt the following day; the shooting in
2015 occurred on the 193rd anniversary of the thwarted uprising. The rebuilt
church was formally shuttered with other all-black congregations by the city in
1834, meeting in secret until 1865 when it was formally reorganized, acquired
the name Emanuel ("God with us"), and rebuilt upon a design by
Denmark Vesey's son. That structure was badly damaged in the 1886
Charleston earthquake. The current building dates from 1891.
The
church's senior pastor, the Rev. Clementa C.
Pinckney, had held rallies after the shooting of
Walter Scott by a white police officer on April 4, 2015, in nearby North Charleston, and as a state senator,
he pushed for legislation requiring police to wear body cameras. Several observers noted a
similarity between the massacre at Emanuel AME and the
1963 bombing of a politically
active African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama,
where the Ku Klux Klan
(KKK) killed four black girls and injured fourteen others, an attack that
galvanized the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
A
number of scholars, journalists, activists and politicians have emphasized the
need to understand the attack in the broader context of racism in
the United States, rather than seeing it as an isolated event of
racially motivated violence. In 1996, Congress passed the Church Arson
Prevention Act, making it a federal crime to damage religious property because
of its "racial or ethnic character", in response to a spate of 154 suspicious church burnings since 1991. More
recent arson attacks against black churches included a black church in Massachusetts that was burned down the day
after President
Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009.
Shooting
At
around 9:05 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 17, 2015, the Charleston Police Department
began receiving calls of a shooting at Emanuel AME Church. A man described as
white, with sandy-blond hair, around 21 years old and 5 feet 9 inches
(175 cm) in height, wearing a gray sweatshirt and jeans, opened fire with
a Glock 41
.45-caliber
handgun on a
group of people inside the church at a Bible study attended by Pinckney. The
shooter then fled the scene. He had been carrying eight magazines holding hollow-point bullets. This was the largest mass
shooting at an American place of worship, alongside a 1991 attack at a Buddhist
temple in Waddell, Arizona.
During
the hour preceding the attack, 13 people including the shooter participated in
the Bible study. According to the accounts of people who talked to survivors,
the shooter asked for Pinckney and sat down next to him, initially listening to
others during the study. He started to disagree when they began discussing Scripture.
Eventually, after waiting for the other participants to begin praying, he stood
up and pulled a gun from a fanny pack, aiming it at 87-year-old Susie Jackson.
Jackson's nephew, 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders, tried to talk him down and asked
him why he was attacking churchgoers. The shooter responded, "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking
over our country. And you have to go." When he expressed his
intention to shoot everyone, Sanders dove in front of Jackson and was shot
first. The suspect then shot the other victims, all the while shouting racial
epithets. He also reportedly said, "Y'all want
something to pray about? I'll give you something to pray about." He
reloaded his gun five times. Sanders' mother and his five-year-old niece, both
attending the study, survived the shooting by pretending to be dead.
Dot
Scott, president of the local branch of the NAACP,
said she had heard from victims' relatives that the shooter spared one woman
(Sanders' mother) so she could, according to him, tell other people what
happened. He asked her, "Did I shoot you?" She replied,
"No." Then, he said, "Good, 'cause we need someone to survive,
because I'm gonna shoot myself, and you'll be the only survivor."
According to the son of one of the victims, who spoke to that survivor, the
shooter allegedly turned the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger, but
only then discovered he was out of ammunition. Before leaving the church, he
reportedly "uttered a racially inflammatory statement" over the
victims' bodies. The entire shooting lasted for approximately six minutes.
Several
hours later, a bomb threat was called into the Courtyard by Marriott hotel on Calhoun
Street, complicating the investigation and prompting an evacuation of the
immediate area.
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Nine victims of the
Charleston church shooting. Top row: Cynthia Hurd, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Rev.
Sharonda Coleman-Singleton Middle row: Daniel Simmons, Rev. Depayne Middleton
Doctor, Tywanza Sanders Bottom row: Myra Thompson, Ethel Lee Lance, Susie
Jackson
Via Facebook and Getty Images
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/charleston-church-shooting-tributes-paid-kind-hearted-victims-n377551]
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Victims
The
dead, six women and three men, were all Methodist African Americans. Eight died at the scene;
the ninth, Daniel Simmons, died at MUSC Medical Center.
They were all killed by multiple gunshots fired at close range. One unidentified
person was wounded but survived. Five individuals survived the shooting
unharmed, including Felicia Sanders, mother of slain victim Tywanza Sanders,
and her five-year-old granddaughter, along with Polly Sheppard, a Bible study
member. Pinckney's wife and daughter were also inside the building during the
shooting. Those killed were identified as:
- Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd (54) – Bible study member and manager for the Charleston County Public Library system; sister of Malcolm Graham.
- Susie Jackson (87) – a Bible study and church choir member.
- Ethel Lee Lance (70) – the church's sexton.
- Depayne Middleton-Doctor (49) – a pastor who was also employed as a school administrator and admissions coordinator at Southern Wesleyan University.
- Clementa C. Pinckney (41) – the church's pastor and a South Carolina state senator.
- Tywanza Sanders (26) – a Bible study member; grandnephew of Susie Jackson.
- Daniel Simmons (74) – a pastor who also served at Greater Zion AME Church in Awendaw.
- Sharonda Coleman-Singleton (45) – a pastor; also a speech therapist and track coach at Goose Creek High School.
- Myra Thompson (59) – a Bible study teacher.
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Mugshot
taken of Dylann Roof, taken following his capture and extradition.
Dylann Storm Roof (born April 3, 1994)
is an American suspected of perpetrating the June 17, 2015 Charleston church shooting. During a
prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church, Roof is alleged to have killed nine African
Americans, including senior pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney, and injured one other
person. After several people identified Roof as the main suspect, he became the
center of a manhunt that ended the morning after the shooting with his arrest
in Shelby, North
Carolina. He later confessed that he committed the shooting in hopes of
igniting a race
war.
Three days after the shooting, a website
titled The Last Rhodesian was discovered and later confirmed by officials
to be owned by Roof. The website contained photos of Roof posing with symbols
of white supremacy and neo-Nazism,
along with a manifesto in which he outlined his views towards blacks,
among other peoples. He also claimed in the manifesto to have developed his
white supremacist views following research on the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin and "black-on-white crime".
Roof has been charged with nine counts of
murder, three counts of attempted murder, and possession of a firearm during
the commission of a felony. He also faces federal hate crime
charges, for which he faces the death penalty. His trial in
state court will start on January 17, 2017.
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Suspect
Dylann Storm Roof was named by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) as the suspected killer after his father and uncle contacted police to
positively identify him upon seeing security photos of him in the news. Roof
was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and was living
in largely African-American Eastover at the time of the attack. Roof
had a prior police record consisting of two arrests, both made in the months
preceding the attack. According to FBI Director James
Comey, a police report detailing Roof's admission to a narcotics offense
should have prevented him from purchasing the weapon used in the shooting, but
an administrative error within the National Instant
Criminal Background Check System kept Roof's admission (though not the
arrest itself) from appearing on his mandatory background check.
One
image from his Facebook
page depicts Roof wearing a jacket decorated with two emblems that are
popular among American white supremacists: the flags of the former Rhodesia (now
known as Zimbabwe)
and apartheid-era South Africa. Roof
reportedly told friends and neighbors of his plans to kill people, including a
plot to attack the College of Charleston, but his claims were
not taken seriously. On June 20, a website was discovered called The Last
Rhodesian (www.lastrhodesian.com); it had been registered to a "Dylann
Roof" on February 9, 2015. The website included what appeared to be an
unsigned manifesto containing Roof's opinions of "Blacks",
"Jews", "Hispanics" and "East Asians", as well a
cache of photos, including an image of Roof posing with a handgun and a Confederate Battle Flag. In this manifesto,
Roof says he became "racially aware" as a result of the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, writing that
because he kept hearing people talk about the incident, he "decided to
look him up" and read the Wikipedia article about it. He concluded that George
Zimmerman had been in the right, and he was unable to comprehend why the
case had gained national attention. He then searched for "black on White [sic] crime" on Google and found
the website of the Council of Conservative Citizens,
where he read "pages upon pages" of cases involving black people
murdering white people. Roof then writes he has "never been the same since
that day".
According
to web server logs, Roof's website was last modified at 4:44 p.m. on June
17, the day of the shooting, when Roof noted, "[A]t the time of writing I
am in a great hurry."
An
unidentified source said interrogations with Roof after his arrest determined
he had been planning the attack for around six months, researched Emanuel AME
Church, and targeted it because of its role in African-American history. One of the
friends who briefly hid Roof's gun from him said, "I don't think the
church was his primary target because he told us he was going for the school.
But I think he couldn't get into the school because of the security ... so I
think he just settled for the church."
Roof's
cellphone and computer were seized and subjected to FBI analysis. According to
unnamed officials, he was in online communication with other white
supremacists, and although they did not appear to have encouraged the massacre,
the investigation was said to have widened to include other persons of interest.
Criminal
investigation
Manhunt
and capture
The
attack was treated as a hate crime by police, and officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation
were called in to assist in the investigation and manhunt.
At
10:44 a.m., on the morning after the attack, Roof was captured in a
traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina, approximately 245
miles (394 km) from the shooting scene. A .45-caliber pistol was found in
the car during the arrest, though it was not immediately clear if it was the
same one used in the attack. Police received a tip-off from a woman who
recognized Roof driving his car, a black Hyundai
Elantra with South Carolina license plates and a three-flag "Confederate States of
America" bumper decoration, on U.S.
Route 74, recalling security camera images taken at the church and
distributed to the media. She later recalled, "I got closer and saw that
haircut. I was nervous. I had the worst feeling. Is that him or not him?"
She called her employer, who contacted local police, and then tailed the
suspect's car for 35 miles (56 km) until she was certain authorities were
moving in for an arrest.
Legal
proceedings
Roof
waived his extradition rights and was flown to Sheriff Al Cannon Detention
Center in North Charleston on the evening of
June 18. At the jail, his cell-block neighbor was Michael Slager, the former
North Charleston police officer charged with murder after he shot Walter Scott. According to
unconfirmed reports, Roof confessed to committing the attack and said his
purpose was to start a race war. He reportedly told investigators he almost did
not go through with his mission because members of the church study group had
been so nice to him.
On
June 19, Roof was charged with nine counts of murder and one count of
possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. He first
appeared in Charleston County court via videoconference
at a bond hearing later that day. At the hearing, shooting survivors and
relatives of five of the victims spoke to Roof directly, saying that they were
"praying for his soul" and forgave him.
The
judge, Charleston County chief magistrate James "Skip" Gosnell, Jr.,
caused controversy at the bond hearing with his statement that, alongside the
dead victims and their families, "there are victims on this young man's
side of the family [...] Nobody would have ever thrown them into the whirlwind
of events that they are being thrown into." In 2005, the South Carolina Supreme Court
reprimanded Gosnell for using a racial slur while on the bench in 2003. Gosnell
set a $1 million bond for the weapons possession charge and no bail on the nine
counts of murder.
Governor
Nikki
Haley has called on prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Roof. Governor
Haley warned in June 2016 that divisive rhetoric can lead to tragedies such as
the massacre at the church.
On
July 7, Roof was indicted on the nine murder charges and the weapons charge, as
well three new charges of attempted murder, one for each person who survived
the shooting. His state trial is scheduled to start on January 17, 2017. He
also faces federal hate crime charges, including nine counts of using a
firearm to commit murder and 24 civil rights violations (12 hate crime
charges and 12 counts of violating a person's freedom of religion), with 18 of the charges
carrying the federal death penalty.
On
July 31, Roof pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against him on the advice
of his lawyer David Bruck. Bruck earlier said Roof wanted to plead
guilty, but he couldn't advise it without knowing the government's intentions.
On
September 3, Ninth Circuit solicitor (district
attorney) Scarlett Wilson announced that she intended to seek the federal
death penalty against Roof, with the decision being made since more than two
people were killed in the shooting and others' lives were put at risk. On
September 16, Roof said through his attorney that he was willing to plead guilty
in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole. On October 1, the
federal trial was pushed back to at least January 2016 to give prosecutors and Roof's
attorneys more time to prepare. On December 1, the trial was postponed again to
an unknown date. He and Joey Meek, accused of misprision of felony and lying to investigators
about Roof's plans, will reappear in federal court on February 11, 2016, while
their lawyers hold a bar meeting with prosecutors to discuss their cases. Jury
selection will start on January 17, 2017.
Aftermath
Context of racism
Heidi
Beirich, the director of the Intelligence Project for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a
non-profit that maintains an online list of its
designated American hate groups, said the gunman's reported self-declared
motivation reflected a major topic on white supremacist websites, which are
preoccupied with the idea that "whites are being hugely victimized by
blacks and no one is paying attention." In particular, the shooter's
reported claim that "you rape our women" ties into a long history of
violence against blacks in the name of white womanhood;
Beirich said, "[Black men sexually assaulting white women] is probably the
oldest racist trope we have in the U.S." According to her, it was a
particularly effective trope because of the way white femininity has
historically been viewed and positioned. Lisa Lindquist-Dorr, associate professor
at the University of Alabama, explained the myth of
black rapists that dominated white, Southern culture, saying, "Sexual
access to women is a trophy of power, white women embodied virtue and morality,
they signified whiteness and white superiority, so sexual access to white women
was possessing the ultimate privilege that white men held. It makes women
trophies to be traded among men."
Jamelle
Bouie itemized for Slate, "Make any list of anti-black
terrorism in the United States, and you'll also have a list of attacks
justified by the specter of black rape." The Tulsa
race riot of 1921, the Rosewood
massacre of 1923, and the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 were cited as examples. Beirich said it was unclear at that
point in the investigation whether the suspect had any connection to hate
groups, but such groups have been growing over the past decade, and "for
several years South Carolina has been the place with the highest density of
hate groups."
Memorials
At
Morris Brown African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, numerous people
of different races and religions attended a ceremony commemorating the victims
and proclaimed that the attack would not divide the community. Another such
ceremony occurred at the TD Arena in the College of
Charleston. On June 21, four days after the shooting, Emanuel AME
Church reopened for its Sunday worship service. The Rev. Dr. Norvel Goff Sr.,
Presiding Elder of Emanuel AME Church, delivered the sermon.
On
June 25, 2015, at Emanuel AME Church, funerals were held for victims Ethel
Lance and Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and attended by several political figures
and civil rights leaders. Clementa Pinckney's
funeral was held in the basketball arena of the College of Charleston on June
26, 2015, with President Barack Obama
delivering the eulogy. Earlier, Pinckney's body lay in state in the South
Carolina statehouse. This was followed by the funerals of Tywanza Sanders,
Susie Jackson, and Cynthia Graham Hurd the next day. Hurd's family announced
that they are establishing the Cynthia Graham Hurd Fund for Reading and
Literacy organization in her memory; it is expected to give children easier
access to books. By July 2, the last of the victims, Daniel Simmons, was
buried.
Community response
There
has been some criticism aimed towards the community's forgiveness to Roof.
The
Black Lives Matter movement has protested the
shooting.
Questions
were raised about the security of black churches (as well as churches in
general) and their long-standing practice of welcoming anyone willing to pray.
Roof, a stranger to churchgoers, was easily able to enter Emanuel AME Church
with no questions being asked. In the weeks after the shooting, AME Church leaders distributed a
document titled "12 Considerations for Congregational Security",
which recommended creating security plans and teams for black churches,
improving communications, developing relationships with local law enforcement,
and securing and monitoring all entrances and exits to churches. Some churches
considered implementing armed security and metal detectors, but conversation
for these steps have currently not gained traction.
Nine
artists from across the U.S. created portraits of the victims as a tribute. The
portraits were put on display at Principle Gallery for one month, and were
given to the victims' families afterwards. Artists involved in the memorial
included Ricky Mujica, Mario Andres Robinson, Lauren Tilden, Paul McCormack,
Gregory Mortenson, Catherine Prescott, Terry Strickland, Judy Takács, and Stephanie Deshpande.
On
July 1, 2016, survivors of the shooting sued the FBI for inadvertently enabling
Roof to purchase the gun used in the shooting.
Other investigations
The
FBI is investigating possible church
arson after several black churches burned down in one week's time following
the shooting. On July 3, Time
reported that the investigation concluded the fires were unrelated.
The
FBI is undergoing a 30-day review to examine the lapses in the background-check
system that allowed the suspected shooter to legally purchase the gun used in
the shooting. According to James Comey, Roof had been arrested in March on a
felony drug charge, which would have required an inquiry into the charge during
the background check examination. However, he was actually arrested on a
misdemeanor drug charge, which was incorrectly written as a felony at first due
to a data entry error made by a jail clerk. The mistake was noticed by the jail
two days after the arrest, but the change was not made. The FBI agent
conducting the background check examination then called the wrong agency while
making the inquiry of the drug charge, due to having limited information on law
enforcement agencies in Lexington County. This subsequently allowed Roof to
make the purchase. However, despite the misdemeanor charge, he still would not
have been able to purchase the gun under a law that barred "unlawful
user[s] of or addicted to any controlled substance" from owning firearms.
Several bills aiming to fix this loophole were proposed, and South Carolina
legislation planned to discuss the loophole in 2016.
On
September 17, one of the friends who briefly hid Roof's gun away from him was
arrested, reportedly for lying to federal authorities during their
investigation and failing to report a crime. The next day, he pleaded not
guilty to one count of making false statements to federal investigators and one
count of concealing knowledge about a crime. He faces a maximum of nine years
in prison and a $500,000 fine. According to legal experts, prosecutors possibly
intend to use the prospect of federal charges against him as leverage for testifying
against Roof. He will reappear in federal court alongside Roof on February 11,
2016.
Reactions
Officials
Charleston
Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. denounced the attack and said, "Of all cities, in Charleston, to have a horrible
hateful person go into the church and kill people there to pray and worship
with each other is something that is beyond any comprehension and is not
explained. We are going to put our arms around that church and that church
family."
South
Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said, "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. Please join us in lifting up the victims and their families with our
love and prayers."
President Barack
Obama said in Charleston on June 18, "Once again, innocent people were
killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble
getting their hands on a gun...We as a country will have to reckon with the
fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced
countries." At a Washington press conference later that day, he said,
"Michelle and I know several members of Emanuel AME Church. We knew their
pastor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who, along with eight others, gathered in
prayer and fellowship and was murdered last night. And to say our thoughts and
prayers are with them and their families, and their community, doesn’t say
enough to convey the heartache and the sadness and the anger that we
feel."
On
June 19, the United States Department of Justice
fast-tracked a Crime Victim Assistance Formula Grant
of $29 million to the South Carolina government. Some of the money will be
allocated to the survivors.
Families
After
Roof's appearance at his bond hearing, his family issued a statement,
expressing their shock and grief at his actions. Following the funerals of
several of the victims in the shooting, they issued a second statement,
expressing their condolences to the victims' families and announcing the
temporary postponement of comments out of respect for them. During the bond
hearing, several family members of the victims told Roof that they forgave him.
Local community
The
local community surrounding Charleston held prayer vigils and fundraisers. A
mass unity rally was also held on the Arthur Ravenel Bridge on the evening of June
21. Organizers of the rally claimed there were up to 20,000 supporters in the
rally. Tens of thousands of individuals crossed from the Mount Pleasant side of
the bridge to the downtown Charleston side, carrying supportive signs and
flags. Dozens of boats joined in the procession as well.
Religious community
The
World Methodist Council, an association of
worldwide churches in the Methodist tradition, of which the AME Church is a
part, said it "urges prayer and support for the victims' families and
those members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church who have been so
gravely affected by this crime motivated by hate." The President and
Vice-President of the British Methodist Conference, also a member of the World
Methodist Council, sent a letter of solidarity to the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
saying, "The hearts of the members of the Methodist Church of Great Britain
go out to the families and friends of those killed; to the Church; and to the
wider communities in Charleston."
The
Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, also a
member of the World Methodist Council and in full
communion with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, called on its
members "to support the victims of this and all acts of violence, to work
to end racism and hatred, to seek peace with justice, and to live the prayer
that our Lord gave us, that God's 'kingdom come, [and] will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven'."
The
Christian Methodist Episcopal
Church, also a member of the World Methodist Council and in full communion
with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, shared its support with the presiding
bishop, stating, "let us join with the AMEs in prayer for the healing of
the families touched by this tragedy – the families of the victims and the
family of the perpetrator."
The
Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, stated,
"We offer our prayers for healing to the wounded and traumatized, and
solidarity and accompaniment to our sisters and brothers in the African
Methodist Episcopal Church." Archbishop Joseph Edward Kurtz, the president of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,
made similar remarks.
Various
national Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Committee,[142]
Union for Reform Judaism, Jewish Federations of North America,
Anti-Defamation League, and Orthodox
Union issued statements deploring the attack and expressing deep grief and
horror. The Rabbinical Assembly, in its own statement,
quoted Leviticus,
saying, "'Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.' Hateful,
violent acts such as this have no place in our society, in a country known for
its diversity and blending of various cultures."
Many
national Muslim organizations and individual imams, such as Council on American–Islamic
Relations, Islamic Society of North America
(ISNA), and Islamic Circle of North America
issued statements condemning the attack and offering sympathy for the victims.[149]
In a joint statement, CAIR and Muslim leaders in Baltimore
quoted the Quran,
saying, "The Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, says: 'He who takes one life,
it is as if he has slain all of mankind. And he who saves one life, it is as if
he has saved all of mankind.'"
Muslim
and Jewish religious organizations have raised several hundred thousand dollars
to help rebuild black churches that were burned down in the weeks after the
shooting.
Others
At
least eighteen candidates and prospective candidates for the 2016 U.S. presidential election
expressed reactions through various media and addresses. According to NPR, Democrats and Republicans candidates
found different ways to address the incident, with Democrats seeing race and
gun control as central issues, while Republicans pointing to mental illness and
referring to it as tragic but random act. Most Republican candidates eventually
acknowledged that race was a motivating factor for the shooting. According to
the Christian Science Monitor, the
shooting became a precarious subject for Republican presidential contenders, in
particular in regard of the racial motivations behind it, as South Carolina
holds primaries and the state's political importance have resulted in some
candidates "skirting around the clear racial motivations behind the
attack".
The
night following the attack, Jon Stewart delivered a monologue on The
Daily Show discussing the tragic nature of the news, condemning the
attacks as well as the media's response to it. Stewart argued that in response
to Islamic terrorism, politicians declare they will
do "whatever we can" to make America safe, even justifying torture, but respond to this mass
shooting with "what are you gonna do, crazy is as crazy does".
The
Council of Conservative Citizens,
whose website Roof cited as a source for his radicalization, issued a statement
on its website "unequivocally condemn[ing]" the attack, but that Roof
has some "legitimate grievances" against black people. An additional
statement from the group's president, Earl Holt III, disavowed responsibility
for the crime and stated that the group's website "accurately and honestly
report[s] black-on-white violent crime".
In
an online forum, Charles Cotton, a lawyer in Houston and a
national board member of the National Rifle Association, placed blame
for the shooting on Pinckney for not allowing the churchgoers to hold concealed
carry weapons inside the church. In 2011, Pinckney had voted against
legislation that would allow concealed handguns to be carried into public
places. Cotton also criticized the effectiveness of gun-free zones, stating,
"If we look at mass shootings that occur, most happen in gun-free
zones." Cotton's comment has since been deleted from the online forum.
Following
the shooting, Rhodesians Worldwide, an online magazine
catering to the Rhodesian expatriate community, issued a brief statement
condemning Roof's actions in response to his use of the Rhodesian
flag. In a disclaimer, the online magazine pointed out that 80% of the Rhodesian Security Forces were black and
stressed that the Rhodesian Bush War was a struggle against communism
rather than a racial conflict.
Jerry
Richardson, the owner of the NFL's Carolina
Panthers, donated $100,000 to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund set up by Mayor
Riley, specifically calling for $10,000 to each of the families of the nine
victims to cover their funeral expenses, and the remaining $10,000 to be
delivered to the Emanuel AME Church itself.
Controversies
Confederate flag
On
June 18, 2015, the day after the shooting, many flags, including those at the South Carolina State House, were flown
at half-staff.
The Confederate battle flag flying over the
South Carolina Confederate Monument near the state house was not lowered, as
South Carolina law prohibited alteration of the flag without the consent of
two-thirds of the state legislature. Also, the flagpole lacked a pulley system,
meaning the flag could not be flown at half-staff, only removed.
Flag removal from statehouse grounds
Calls
to remove the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds, as well as debates over
the context of its symbolic nature, were renewed after the attack by several
prominent figures, including President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Jeb Bush. On June 20, several thousand
people gathered in front of the South Carolina State House in protest. An
online petition at MoveOn.org
encouraging the flag's removal had received over 370,000 signatures by that
time.
At
a statehouse press conference on June 22, 2015, Governor Nikki
Haley, flanked by elected officials of both parties, including U.S.
Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott,
and former Republican Governor Mark
Sanford, called for the flag to be removed by the state legislature, saying
that while the flag was "an integral part of our past, it does not
represent the future" of South Carolina. Eulogizing the Rev. Clementa
Pinckney on June 26, 2015, before 5,000 congregants at the College of Charleston, President Barack
Obama acknowledged that the shooting had catalyzed a broad movement, backed
by Republicans and Democrats, to remove the flag from official public display.
"Blinded by hatred, [the gunman] failed to comprehend what Reverend
Pinckney so well understood: the power of God's grace," Obama said.
"By taking down that flag we express God's grace. But I don't think God
wants us to stop there."
On
July 6, 2015, the South Carolina Senate voted to remove the
Confederate flag from display outside the South Carolina State House. Following
13 hours of debate, the vote in the House to remove it was passed by a
two-thirds majority (94–20) on July 9. Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill on
July 9. On July 10, the Confederate flag was taken down for the last time; it
will be stored until it can later be shown in a museum.
Retailer bans
On
June 23, 2015, retailers Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Sears Holding Corporation (which owns Sears and Kmart), and eBay all announced
plans to stop selling merchandise with the Confederate flag. Similarly, Warner
Bros. announced that they were halting production of "General Lee" car toys, which prominently
feature a Confederate flag on the roof.
Numerous
other organizations, including flag manufacturers, also decided to stop
profiting from the flag.
Other
In
addition to the controversy regarding the Confederate flag's modern display,
there have been considerations by institutions across the U.S. to remove the
names of historic Confederate figures from schools, colleges, and streets.
Campaigns to change the names were started in several cities.
In
a national survey conducted in 2015, 57% of Americans opined that the
Confederate flag represented Southern pride rather than racism. A previous poll
in 2000 had a nearly identical result of 59%. However, poll results from only
citizens living in the South yielded different results: 75% of whites described
the flag as a symbol of pride, while 75% of blacks said the flag represented
racism.
Earl Holt political donations
Earl
Holt, the leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens, whose website Roof
credited in his manifesto for shaping his views, gave more than $74,000 to Republican candidates and
committees in recent years including campaign donations to 2016 presidential
candidates Ted
Cruz, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul,
who have all condemned Roof's racially-based motives. Following the shooting,
and after a journalist contacted the campaigns with details about the donor's
background, a spokesman for the Ted Cruz campaign said he would return an
$8,500 donation to Holt; the campaign later said it would be donating $11,000
to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund, to assist the victims' families. The Rand Paul
campaign said Holt's $2,250 donation would be given to the Fund, and Rick
Santorum said his $1,500 donation from Holt would be donated to the same
charity. Twelve other Republican office-holders also announced they would be
returning or donating Holt's contributions.
"Terrorism" terminology
See
also: Definitions of terrorism
While
some media professionals, politicians and law enforcement officials referred to
the attack as domestic terrorism, others did not. This
renewed a debate about the proper terminology to use when describing the
shooting and other attacks.
On
June 18, professor and terrorism expert Brian Phillips offered his definition
of terrorism and said, "...[T]he massacre in Charleston, S.C. Wednesday
was clearly a terrorist act." He based this conclusion on a racist
political motivation that "seems likely" and his "intimidation
of a wider audience" criterion was met when "...the shooter
reportedly left one person alive to spread the message." An article by CNN
National Security Analyst Peter Bergen and David Sterman on June 19 says,
"By any reasonable standard, this is terrorism, which is generally defined
as an act of violence against civilians by individuals or organizations for
political purposes. ... [D]eadly acts of terrorism by virulent racists and
anti-government extremists have been more common in the United States than
deadly acts of jihadist terrorism since 9/11."
Some
publications and analysis of the event posit that these naming discrepancies
reflect forms of denial or outright racism.
Speaking
on June 19 at a press conference in Baltimore, FBI Director James
Comey said that while his agency was investigating the shooting as a
"hate crime", he did not consider it an "act of terrorism",
citing the lack of political motivation for the suspect's actions. He said,
"Terrorism is act of violence done or threatened in order to try to
influence a public body or citizenry, so it's more of a political act, and
again, based on what I know, I don't see this as a political act. Doesn't make
it any less horrific, but terrorism has a definition under federal law."
Heidi
Beirich, who leads the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC),
pointed to the discovery of a website attributed to Roof, which featured a
manifesto and sixty photos as an example of why federal agents "don't have
themselves together on this issue". The website began circulating on the
Internet on June 20. Beirich said, "The way they found the website was
that someone ran a domain tool reverse search on this guy's name... It wasn't
rocket science, but where were the feds?"
On
June 24, FBI spokesman Paul Bresson left open the possibility of terrorism
charges, saying, "Any eventual federal charges will be determined by the
facts at the conclusion of the investigation, and are not influenced by how the
investigation is initially opened." Ultimately, it is up to Department of Justice
prosecutors to decide what federal charges to bring. A spokesperson for
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the Department of Justice was
investigating the shooting as both "a hate crime and as an act of domestic
terrorism."
UPDATED: July 16, 2016
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