Nine people have been killed in a shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
FBI has identified the suspect of the killing as 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof, who was arrested in Shelby, N.C., this morning during a traffic stop. Federal authorities are treating the attack as a hate crime.
Roof attended a Bible study class at the church for about an hour before opening fire, officials said. The church’s pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, who was among those killed.
The incident has left President Barack Obama outraged. Speaking from the White House, the US President said that all too often, he has been called to the microphone to mourn the deaths of innocents killed by those “who had no trouble getting their hands on a gun.”
“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,” Obama said. “It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. It is in our power to do something about it,” he added.
Obama said that he and Vice President Joe Biden both spoke with Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley to express condolences. He disclosed that he and first lady Michelle Obama knew several parishioners at Emanuel AME church, including late Pastor Pinckney.