Gunman Who Killed 9 People at Historic Black Church in SC Shouted Racial Epithets, “You Rape Our Women and You’re Taking Over Our Country”

Charleston, SC — Police have captured and arrested Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white male from Eastover, S.C. who reportedly went into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. and opened fire and killing nine people during a prayer service. Six females and three males, including pastor, Clementa Pinckney, were killed in the attack.

Roof apparently walked into the church Wednesday evening, sat in attendance for about an hour, and then pulled out his weapon and started firing.

One survivor said…

According to one survivor, the shooter reloaded five different times and her son was trying to “talk him out of doing the act of killing people.” But he wouldn’t listen. While shooting, he kept saying, “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”

Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said the crime is being investigated as a hate crime. “No one in this community will forget this night,” he said.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch vowed to bring the shooter to justice, and said, “Acts like this one have no place in our country and no place in a civil society.”

“The only reason someone could walk into a church and shoot people praying is out of hate. The only reason. It is the most dastardly act that one could possibly imagine,” said Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley.

Racially motivated?

Roof, who was arrested twice earlier this year, once on a drug charge and later for trespassing, has pictures his Facebook page of himself standing in in front of a swamp forest wearing a jacket with patches of the racist-era flags of South Africa and Rhodesia, the one white-ruled country now called Zimbabwe.

Where did the gun come from?

According to some media reports, the gun was a gift to him from his father on his 21st birthday.

Currently, Roof remains in custody with no bail awaiting charges. Prosecutors are expecting to ask for the death penalty.