Roof, a 21-year-old high-school dropout from Eastover, S.C., was taken into custody in North Carolina not long after law enforcement officials identified him as the sole suspect in the Wednesday night massacre, the deadliest attack on a place of worship in the United States in 24 years.
The oldest victim was 87; the youngest was 26. They included a library manager, a track and field coach and a state senator, Clementa Pinckney, who also served as senior pastor at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where the shooting occurred.
Federal law enforcement officials said Roof, who is white, declared his hatred for black people before opening fire, and the U.S. Justice Department has said it is investigating the attack as a hate crime.
Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said Roof was arrested during a traffic stop in Shelby, N.C., at around 11 a.m. Mullen said Roof “was cooperative with the officer who stopped him” in Shelby, about 250 miles by road northwest of Charleston.
“In America, you know, we don’t let bad people like this get away with these dastardly deeds,” Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. (D) said at a news briefing. The longtime mayor said Roof — “an awful person” — “is now in custody, where he will always remain.”
Roof waived extradition from North Carolina. After his arrest, he boarded a small plane bound for South Carolina, according to local television affiliates.
The attack began about an hour after the white assailant entered one of the nation’s oldest African American churches and observed the Wednesday-night gathering, authorities said. Six women and three men were killed and at least one other person was injured in the shooting at Emanuel AME, a black landmark in the the birthplace of the Confederacy.
“We believe this is a hate crime; that is how we are investigating it,” Mullen said.
“Any death of this sort is a tragedy; any shooting involving multiple victims is a tragedy,” President Obama said at the White House. “There is something particularly heartbreaking about a death happening in a place in which we seek solace and we seek peace, in a place of worship.”
Although he acknowledged that many facts are not yet known, the president also said that insufficient gun laws were partially to blame. “Once again innocent people were killed because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun,” he said.
“Now is the time for mourning and for healing,” the president added. “But let’s be clear: At some point we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.”
It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. house of worship since 1991, when nine people were killed at the Wat Promkunaram temple near Phoenix. Johnathan Doody, tried three times for the execution-style murders at the Buddhist temple, was sentenced in 2014 to 249 years in prison.
Carl Chinn, who runs what is considered to be the most extensive database on violence at houses of worship, said Wednesday’s shooting was “certainly one of, if not the most, vicious attacks I’ve seen at a faith-based organization,” said
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