CHARLESTON: Relatives of the nine community leaders shot down during a Bible Study session at their historic black church confronted the shooting suspect yesterday during his initial court hearing, and spoke of love.
The suspect Dylann Roof heard words of forgiveness from families of some of the nine people he’s accused of killing.
His response: A blank expression.
Wearing a striped inmate jumpsuit, the 21-year-old appeared Friday afternoon by video feed at a bond hearing in Charleston, South Carolina. He stood motionless while listening to the anguished words of relatives of victims he gunned down Wednesday night at a Bible study at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
“I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you,” a daughter of Ethel Lance said. “And have mercy on your soul. You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people but God forgives you, and I forgive you.”
Felicia Sanders — mother of victim Tywanza Sanders and a survivor of the church shooting herself — said that “every fiber in my body hurts, and I will never be the same.”
Dylann Roof’s leanings
South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley said the state will “absolutely” want the death penalty.
A steady stream of people brought flowers and notes and shared sombre 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 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 also told him he used birthday money from his parents to buy a .45 Glock pistol before the attack, Meek said. The affidavit said Roof’s father and uncle also called authorities after seeing surveillance photos, and that the father said Roof owned a .45-calibre gun.
