Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shooting 9 Murdered June 17, 2015

Mother Emanuel Church, South Carolina, a young adult opened fire: killing nine, including the pastor and state senator during a regular prayer meeting.

Police immediately branded the shooting spree, which began just after 9 p.m. Wednesday, a hate crime after the horrific incident which left six women and three men dead.

"This is an unspeakable and unfathomable act by somebody filled with hate and a deranged mind," Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley said in a Thursday morning press conference. The suspect was apprehended after a concerned citizen phone in a sighting on the highway.

At Morris Brown A.M.E. Church, just a few blocks from Emanuel, the mood of a packed house alternated between grief, hope and resilience. Calls of “enough is enough” echoed as the Rev. John Richard Bryant called for an end to gun violence.
“You look like a quilt, you look like patches,” Mr. Bryant said. “You all fit somewhere.”