CHARLESTON, S.C. — The people of Charleston built a memorial and planned a vigil Friday to repudiate whatever a gunman would hope to accomplish by killing nine 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 Dylann Storm Roof, who allegedly 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."
"This was an act of racial terrorism and must be treated as such," the Rev. Cornell William Brooks, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Friday in Charleston.
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.
Roof was arrested in North Carolina after an alert motorist recognized him, and returned in shackles to a county jail where he was being held next to the cell of Michael Slager, the white former police officer charged with fatally shooting black motorist Walter Scott in neighboring North Charleston.
He appeared Friday for an initial bond hearing held by video link to the courthouse. In addition to the nine murder counts, Roof is charged with possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime -- a common charge in South Carolina when a gun is involved, whether legally owned or not.
Meek said Roof told him he used birthday money from his parents to buy a .45 Glock pistol before the attack.
The victims included Clementa Pinckney, a state senator who doubled as the church's lead pastor, and eight others who each played multiple roles in their communities and families: ministers and coaches, teachers and a librarian, counselors and choir singers and the church sexton who kept the historic building clean.
Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two and a Democrat who spent 19 years in the South Carolina legislature. 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 at Wells Fargo bank to help pay for funerals and other family expenses, and help the church continue its work.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
