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Police say they are treating the attack by a white gunman at a historic black church in Charleston as a hate crime.
06:12, Thursday 18 June 2015
Police have launched a manhunt after nine people were killed in a mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The shooting happened at the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in downtown Charleston at around 9pm (local time) on Wednesday night.
Police said eight people had died at the scene and a ninth victim died later in hospital. A tenth victim is being treated in hospital.
Charleston Police Chief Gregory Mullen confirmed the shooting was being investigated as a hate crime.
Worried relatives gathered near the scene of the shooting
He vowed to "put all effort, all resources and all of our energy into finding this individual who committed this crime tonight".
"This is a tragedy that no community should have to experience.
"It is senseless, it is unfathomable that somebody in today's society would walk into a church when people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives."
The city's mayor Joe Riley said: "This is an unspeakable and heartbreaking tragedy in this most historic church, an evil and hateful person took the lives of citizens who had come to worship and pray together."
Shortly after the shooting, people were told to move back after a bomb threat was made in the area, the Reuters news agency reported.
A police spokesman said they were looking for a slim white male suspect, aged around 21, with sandy blonde hair and wearing a grey sweatshirt, blue jeans and Timberland boots.
A police helicopter was assisting officers on the ground - wearing bulletproof vests and carrying guns - with the search for the shooter and the FBI were also investigating.
Cameras at the scene filmed police taking a white man in a grey T-shirt into a nearby Marriott hotel - but law enforcement officials said they were still looking for the gunman.
Local media said the more than 150-year-old Emmanuel AME church has a predominantly black congregation and is one of the oldest in the country.
Fox News reported that a bible study session is held in the basement every Wednesday evening.
The church's pastor, Clementa Pinckney, is also a state senator and is thought to have been in the building at the time of the shooting.
Tearful relatives were seen gathering at the edge of the police cordon, where they were speaking to emergency services workers.
Charleston Governor Nikki Haley said in a statement: "While we do not yet know all of the details, we do know that we'll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another."
Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush announced he was cancelling a scheduled appearance in Charleston on Thursday.
Charleston police officers search for a shooting suspect outside the Emanuel AME Church, in downtown Charleston. Photo: AP
A white gunman killed nine people at a historic African-American church in the US state of South Carolina, the city’s police chief said today, describing the attack as a “hate crime”.
The gunman – said to be a 21-year-old white man wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and boots – was still at large after the gruesome attack in Charleston. Officers swarmed across the city to try to find him.
Worshippers were attending a prayer meeting in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church at 9pm on Wednesday, local time, when the gunman walked in and opened fire, Charleston Police Chief Gregory Mullen said.
A suspect which police are searching for in connection with the shooting of several people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina is seen in a still image from CCTV footage released by the Charleston Police Department. Photo: Reuters
Eight victims were found dead in the church and a ninth person died after being taken to a hospital, Mullen said. One other person was wounded and receiving treatment. Several other people were wounded.
Officials did not immediately release the names or any details of the victims, but New York-based civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton said in a tweet that the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, the church’s pastor and a member of the state Senate, was among those killed.
The shooting comes at a time of heightened racial tensions in America, after several high-profile killings of unarmed black men at the hands of white police in recent months led to riots and a national debate on race.
Police close off a section of Calhoun Street near the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting. Photo: AP
“It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church when people are having a prayer meeting and take their lives.”
The shooting’s designation as a hate crime means federal authorities will help with the investigation and could assist in an eventual prosecution.
After the shooting, a bomb threat was reported near the church, Charleston County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Eric Watson said, and people who were gathered in the area were told by police to move back. No explosive was found.
Police arrest a man with a backpack, possibly matching the description of the white shooter who killed eight people, during a manhunt in Charleston. Photo: Reuters
Police took a man with a backpack and a camera into custody, but later said they were still searching for a suspect in the shooting. A helicopter with a searchlight hovered overhead as officers combed through the area.
Local broadcaster WCSC reported the FBI was on the scene. The FBI could not be reached immediately for comment.
Charleston is known locally as “The Holy City”, due to its large number of churches and historical mix of immigrant ethnic groups that brought a variety of creeds to the city on the Atlantic coast.
Worshippers gather to pray down the street from the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting. Authorities are viewing the incident as a hate crime. Photo: AP
Charleston is a popular tourist destination known for its cobblestone streets, Southern cuisine and nearby beaches and islands. The city is also known outside the United States for its namesake 1920s dance.
The church where the shooting happened has one of the largest and oldest black congregations in the South, according to the church’s website. It has its roots in the early 19th century, and the current building was built in 1891.
“This is the most unspeakable and heart-breaking tragedy,” Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley said. “People [were] in prayer on a Wednesday evening. A ritual coming together, praying and worshipping God. To have an awful person come in and shoot them … is inexplicable.”
Worshippers embrace following a group prayer. Photo: AP
“The only reason someone can walk in to church and shoot people praying is out of hate,” Riley said. “It is the most dastardly act that one can possibly imagine.”
“We’ll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another,” South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said in a statement.
An impromptu prayer service was held in front of a hotel near the scene of the shooting. “We pray for the families, they’ve got a long road ahead of them,” Reverend James Johnson, a local civil rights activist, said during the service.
South Carolina massacre suspect Dylann Roof had apparent interest in white supremacy
Date June 19, 2015 - 4:32AM
Emily Flitter and Jonathan Allen
Alleged Charleston gunman ... A picture on Dylann Roof's Facebook page showed the 21-year-old wearing a black jacket with patches of the apartheid-era South African flag and the flag of white-ruled Rhodesia, which is now part of Zimbabwe. Photo: AFP
His uncle worried he was cooped up in his room too much. The few images of him found easily online suggest he had a fascination with white supremacy. And for his birthday this year, his father bought the young man a pistol, the uncle said.
Dylann Roof, 21, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of having fatally shot nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic African-American church in South Carolina, on Wednesday.
Those who know him described a withdrawn, troubled young man.
This April photo released by the Lexington County Detention Centre shows alleged gunman Dylann Roof, 21. Photo: AP
Roof's uncle recalled telling his sister, the suspect's mother, several years ago that he was worried about Roof, and that the "quiet, soft-spoken boy" was too introverted.
"I said he was like 19 years old, he still didn't have a job, a driver's licence or anything like that and he just stayed in his room a lot of the time," Cowles said in a telephone interview.
He said he tried to "mentor" his nephew. "He didn't like that, and me and him kind of drifted apart," Cowles said.
Roof was charged in March with possession of illegal drugs or other controlled substances, according to court documents. A few weeks later he was arrested for trespassing. The drug charge was recorded as a first offense, but further details were not immediately available.
It was not immediately clear whether Roof had a lawyer.
Cowles, 56, said he recognised Roof in a photo released by police as they searched for him in the hours after the massacre. Roof's father gave him a .45-caliber pistol for his birthday this year, Cowles said.
"I actually talked to him on the phone briefly for just a few moments and he was saying well I'm outside target practicing with my new gun," Cowles said, describing a phone call around the time of Roof's birthday in April.
"Nobody in my family had seen anything like this coming," Cowles said, speaking shortly before news of Roof's arrest. "I said, if it is him, and when they catch him, he's got to pay for this."
Jacket with apartheid-era flags
A Facebook profile apparently belonging to Roof was created earlier this year. The only public photograph on the page is a blurry snap of him stood in front of winter-bare trees, looking glumly at the camera, bowl-cut brown hair falling over his forehead.
In the picture, he wears a black jacket that prominently features the flags of apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, from when the two African countries were ruled by the white minority.
The page lists him as having a little over 80 Facebook friends on Thursday morning, but that number appeared to be dropping, perhaps as others chose to sever their online ties with him.
One of the friends, Derrick "D-Gutta" Pearson, wrote on his own Facebook page on Thursday morning that he was "wondering why I woke up to 15 friend requests," adding that he didn't know where Roof was.
Pearson warned people to stay away from Roof if they saw him, writing that it was "obvious lives do not matter to him." Pearson also published a photo that appeared to show Roof sitting on the hood of a black car with a licence plate that says "Confederate States of America", a reference to the pro-slavery forces from the US Civil War.
"That's his car and him," Pearson wrote.
The US Department of Justice said federal authorities would investigate Wednesday's attack as a hate crime, or one motivated by racism.
A woman who answered the mobile phone of the suspect's mother Amelia Roof, also known as Amy, declined to comment on Thursday morning.
"We will be doing no interviews ever," she said, before hanging up.
Roof grew up shuttling between his parents' homes in South Carolina, according to his uncle. His father, Ben Roof, runs his own construction business, and he remarried after divorcing Dylann Roof's mother.
Roof and his older sister, Amber, lived part of the time with their father and the father's wife, Paige, until Ben and Paige divorced.
Amber Roof, 27, is engaged to be married and a profile on TheKnot.com shows her wedding is scheduled for Sunday in Lexington, South Carolina.
Suspected gunman Dylann Roof (centre) is detained by authorities. Photo: TNS
His uncle worried he was cooped up in his room too much. The few images of him found easily online suggest he had a fascination with white supremacy, publicly embracing its symbols. And for his birthday this year, his father bought the young man a pistol, the uncle said.
Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white man, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of having fatally shot nine people at a historic African-American church in South Carolina. The US Department of Justice is investigating Wednesday’s attack as a hate crime, motivated by racism or other prejudice.
Those who know Roof described a withdrawn, drifting young man. Roof himself told a police officer who was arresting him earlier this year for illegal possession of prescription painkillers that his parents were pressuring him to get a job.
Roof’s uncle, Carson Cowles, recalled telling his sister, the suspect’s mother, several years ago that he was worried about Roof, and that the “quiet, soft-spoken boy” was too introverted.
“I said he was like 19 years old, he still didn’t have a job, a driver’s licence or anything like that and he just stayed in his room a lot of the time,” Cowles said.
Roof appears to have had difficulties at school. He had to repeat his first year at White Knoll High School but left midway through his second attempt, according to the local school district. He then went to Dreher High School in a different district for the final three months of the academic year before leaving in 2010. Neither district had records of him completing high school.
Cowles tried to “mentor” his nephew. “He didn’t like that, and me and him kind of drifted apart,” Cowles said.
Cowles, 56, said Roof’s father gave him a .45-caliber pistol for his birthday this year.
“I actually talked to him on the phone briefly for just a few moments and he was saying, ‘Well I’m outside target practicing with my new gun,’” Cowles said, describing a phone call around the time of Roof’s birthday in April.
“Nobody in my family had seen anything like this coming,” Cowles said, speaking shortly before news of Roof’s arrest. “If it is him, and when they catch him, he’s got to pay for this.”
In February, Roof unnerved employees working at the Columbiana Centre shopping mall in Columbia, South Carolina, by asking what they told police were unusual questions about staffing levels and closing times.
A patrolling police officer was called over. Roof, becoming increasingly nervous, told him “his parents were pressuring him to get a job,” according to a Columbia Police Department incident report.
The officer asked to search him and found an unlabelled bottle filled with strips of Suboxone, a form of the opioid painkiller buprenorphine that is sometimes misused by people addicted to other powerful opioid drugs, such as oxycodone or heroin.
The incident report said Roof tried to pass them off as breath-freshening strips before admitting that a friend had given the prescription-only drug to him, and the officer arrested him for possession of a controlled substance. The case appeared to be still pending, according to county court records.
Columbiana Centre banned Roof for a year, but two months later, police were called to the mall again. Roof, described as 1.75 metres tall and weighing 54kg, was arrested in the parking lot for trespassing. His car was turned over to his mother. The mall increased the ban to three years.
It was not immediately clear whether Roof had a lawyer.
A reverend at the Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, close to the site of the shooting attack, leads his congregation in a community service to honour those killed by a gunman. Photo: AP
Signs of Roof’s embrace of symbols of the white supremacy movement could be seen in a Facebook profile apparently belonging to Roof, which was created earlier this year. The only publicly visible photograph on the page showed him looking glumly at the camera, bowl-cut brown hair falling over his forehead.
In the picture, he wears a black jacket that prominently features the flags of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and apartheid-era South Africa from when the two African countries were ruled by the white minority.
Roof’s profile listed him as having a little over 80 Facebook friends on Thursday morning, but that number appeared to be dropping, perhaps as others chose to sever their online ties with him. A large number of the Facebook friends were black. By the afternoon, the profile appeared to have been removed from Facebook.
One of the friends, Derrick Pearson, wrote on his own Facebook page on Thursday morning he did not talk to Roof and, before the arrest, warned people to stay away from Roof if they saw him, writing that it was “obvious lives do not matter to him”.
Pearson also published a photo that appeared to show Roof sitting on the hood of a black car with a licence plate that says “Confederate States of America”, a reference to the pro-slavery forces from the US Civil War.
“That’s his car,” Pearson wrote.
Roof was born about three years after his parents had divorced and grew up shuttling between his parents’ homes in South Carolina, according to his uncle and the parents’ divorce papers. His father, Ben Roof, runs his own construction business, and he remarried after divorcing Dylann Roof’s mother.
Roof and his older sister, Amber, lived part of the time with their father and the father’s wife, Paige, until Ben and Paige divorced.
Amber Roof, 27, is engaged to be married and a profile on TheKnot.com shows her wedding is scheduled for tomorrow in Lexington, South Carolina.
Tribune News Service in Charleston, South Carolina
Dylann Roof sits with a gun and the Confederate flag in a photo on website LastRhodesian.com, which also contained a hate-filled 2,500-word essay.
Dylann Roof visits a plantation in South Carolina.Photo: Reuters
He uploaded snapshots of himself burning the US flag and holding a Confederate one. He railed about blacks taking over neighbourhoods and ruining the country. In a chilling vow, he said he would have to be the one to do something about it.
Dozens of photos and a lengthy manifesto, filled with invective cribbed from white- supremacist groups, surfaced on Saturday on a website linked to Dylann Roof, the man accused of killing nine people in a historic black church.
The site, LastRhodesian.com depicts a young man who grew up without strong opinions on race but later became enthralled with images of the Confederacy and driven by a conviction that he had a duty to help save the white race.
The 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black Florida teenager, apparently marked a turning point for Roof, fuelling his obsession with racial issues. The website also reflects the strong influence of a white-nationalist hate group called the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC).
One of the photos shows a seated Roof, wearing camouflage trousers and holding an automatic pistol. In another, he stands shirtless, slender and pale, pointing the gun at the camera.
The text says: "We have no skinheads, no real KKK [Ku Klux Klan], no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me."
It argues there is still time to save America and the South. "Some people feel as though the South is beyond saving, that we have too many blacks here. To this I say look at history. The South had a higher ratio of blacks when we were holding them as slaves," the manifesto said.
The writer, presumably Roof, said he picked Charleston - it doesn't say for what - "because it is the most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country."
As a more detailed picture of Roof, 21, emerged, the son of one of his alleged victims said Roof had tried to kill himself as well in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last Wednesday night.
"He pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger, but it went 'click'," because the chamber was empty, said Kevin Singleton. His mother, Myra Thompson, 59, was one of those killed.
Singleton said it appeared Roof's original intent was to kill Emanuel's well-known minister, the Reverend Clementa Pinckney. But when the Reverend Daniel Simmons, 74 and retired, grappled with Roof, he unloaded on Simmons and the others who died, Singleton said.
Roof is facing nine murder charges in the rampage at one of the oldest and most prominent black churches in the US South.
According to the charging documents and witness statements, he sat in a Bible-study group for nearly an hour before taking out a Glock .45 and killing the six women and three men. In San Francisco, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton called for tougher gun laws. "Race remains a deep fault line in America. Millions of people of colour still experience racism in the everyday lives."
A federal law-enforcement official said authorities believed the website was genuine but were unsure whether Roof had sole control over it.
In the unsigned manifesto, the writer says he was not raised "in a racist home or environment".
"Growing up, in school, the white and black kids would make racial jokes toward each other, but they were all jokes … The event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case."
After the slaying, the manifesto said, the writer went to the website of the CCC and "realised that something was very wrong", because black-on-white crime was being ignored. Martin was killed on February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a former neighbourhood watch volunteer, who was acquitted of second-degree murder in July 2013 after a racially charged trial.
Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which tracks hate groups, said much of the language in the manifesto was material lifted from the CCC. "It seems the CCC media strategy was successful in recruiting Roof into the radical right."
A protester calls for the flag's removal.Photo: EPA
Several thousand protesters gathered under the controversial Confederate flag at South Carolina's state legislature in Columbia, demanding that it be taken down in response to the Charleston church massacre.
Waving placards, chanting "take it down" and singing We Shall Overcome, the youthful crowd, black and white, condemned the American civil war saltire as a symbol of lingering racist sentiment in the US South.
"We can no longer afford to let that flag stand there" and be a beacon for those who harbour "bad opinions", said one of the speakers, 95-year-old lawyer and activist Sarah Leverette, prompting loud cheers.
Organisers called the event a "warm-up" for what they hope will be an even bigger anti-flag protest, also in front of the State House, on the Fourth of July holiday.
Online, more than 370,000 people as of late Saturday had put their name to a petition launched by the left-leaning MoveOn.org activist group, calling for the flag to go.
The flag became a flashpoint once again after Dylann Roof, 21, allegedly walked into a Bible-study class at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and shot dead nine black people.
Supporters of the Confederate flag embrace it as a symbol of Southern pride and heritage, and officials say removing it from the State House grounds requires by law a decision by the Republican-dominated legislature, now in summer recess.
Latest on church shooting: Confederate general bust
By The Associated Press
Jun. 22, 2015 7:52 PM EDT
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, center, calls for legislators to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds during a news conference in the South Carolina State House in Columbia, S.C., Monday, June 22, 2015. Those surrounding her as she spoke included state legislators of both parties. (Tim Dominick/The State via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT ALL LOCAL MEDIA OUT, (TV, ONLINE, PRINT)
7:50 p.m.
A bust Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and an early leader in the Ku Klux Klan, still sits in an alcove outside the Senate chambers at the Tennessee statehouse.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers called for the bust to be removed Monday, days after nine people were gunned down in a historic black church in South Carolina. The shooting prompted calls from the governor and other leaders for the flag to be removed from the Statehouse there.
U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, a democrat from Tennessee, says the government should not promote "symbols of hate" and called for both to be removed.
Even though Forrest, a Tennessee native, was a Klan leader, the bust is inscribed with only "Confederate States Army." It has been at the Capitol for decades.
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7 p.m.
The chairman of the Republican National Committee joined Gov. Nikki Haley in calling for the Confederate flag to be removed from the grounds of South Carolina's Statehouse.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was among roughly 30 people of both parties standing behind Haley on Monday.
In the wake of the massacre in Charleston, Republican presidential hopefuls have been about the flag. South Carolina holds the South's first presidential primary. Asked whether Haley's decision makes it easier for GOP candidates, Priebus said, "It's not about Republican candidates because on the stage there was a group of bipartisan people."
On whether candidates talked to Haley, he said: "I don't know who was talking to who, but I can assure you there has been plenty of conversation going on for many days."
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6:40 p.m.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley spent several hours on the phone with the head of the state's law enforcement agency in the hours after Wednesday's shooting that killed nine in a Charleston church.
Haley's office released her schedule for last week, which included six calls to State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel from 10:25 p.m. Wednesday to 2:45 a.m. Thursday. She then traveled to Charleston to meet with law enforcement and was at the news conference when they announced the arrest of the suspect late that morning.
After the first call from Keel, the Republican governor called the minority leader, and the majority leader in the Senate. Democratic state Sen. Clementa Pinckney was pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church and one of nine people killed during Bible study in the church basement around 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Haley also spoke to President Barack Obama on Thursday and with Pinckney's widow on Friday, according to her schedule.
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6:20 p.m.
Mississippi officials are divided over whether to erase the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, even as South Carolina leaders are pushing to remove a free-standing battle flag that flies outside the state Capitol there.
Mississippi voters decided by a 2-to-1 margin in 2001 to keep the state flag that has been used since 1894. It features the Confederate battle emblem in the upper left corner: a blue X emblazoned with 13 white stars, set against a red field.
Republican Gov. Phil Bryant said Monday that he doesn't believe legislators "will act to supersede the will of the people on this issue."
Democratic Sen. Kenny Wayne Jones, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, says the Confederate emblem is a "symbol of hatred" that's often associated with racial violence.
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6 p.m.
South Carolina House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford says he's confident after talking to members of both parties that the Confederate flag will be taken down from the Statehouse grounds within the next two months.
The Democrat made his comments Monday as members of his party and the GOP called on the flag to be removed, just days after police said a gunman opened fire inside a black church and killed nine people.
"A lot of people understand this is a moment we have to respond to," said Rep. Rick Quinn, a Republican and former House majority leader who said he will vote to take it down.
The biggest questions remaining may be how and when legislators take it up.
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5 p.m.
Republican Gov. Nikki Haley has said that it's time to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds — and that if South Carolina legislators don't deal with the issue themselves as part of their special session focused on budget in the coming weeks, she's prepared to call them back for another special session.
Haley said Monday at a news conference that she's indicated her plan to the GOP-led House and Senate.
According to the terms of a 15-year-old deal that brought the flag from atop the Statehouse to a position outside to a monument for Confederate soldiers, moving the banner will require a two-thirds supermajority in both houses.
Haley reversed her position on the flag after a young white man who embraced it as a symbol of white supremacy was charged with murder in the deaths of nine black church members in Charleston.
Those surrounding her as she spoke included state legislators of both parties.
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4:55 p.m.
Moments after the South Carolina governor's statement, fellow Republicans echoed her call for the Confederate flag to come down, from the head of the Republican Party to the top GOP lawmaker in the U.S. Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement: "The Confederate Battle Flag means different things to different people, but the fact that it continues to be a painful reminder of racial oppression to many suggests to me at least that it's time to move beyond it, and that the time for a state to fly it has long since passed. There should be no confusion in anyone's mind that as a people we're united in our determination to put that part of our history behind us."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said "this flag has become too divisive and too hurtful for too many of our fellow Americans."
The remarks on the flag come after a young white man who embraced it as a symbol of white supremacy was charged with murder in the deaths of nine black church members in Charleston.
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4:35 p.m.
The White House says President Barack Obama will travel to Charleston, South Carolina, on Friday to memorialize the victims of a shooting at a historic black church.
Obama will deliver the eulogy at the funeral services of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the pastor of the Emanuel AME church where the shooting that killed nine people occurred.
Obama and first lady Michelle got to know the slain pastor, who also was state senator, during the 2008 presidential campaign. The first lady and Vice President Joe Biden will also attend the funeral.
Pinckney was an early Obama supporter.
Last week, Obama said the shootings show the need for a national reckoning on gun violence.
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4:30 p.m.
Gov. Nikki Haley has said the Confederate flag should be removed from the Statehouse grounds, but she also says the symbol will always remain a part of South Carolina.
Haley said Monday at a news conference that whether the flag is at the Statehouse or in a museum, it will always be part of the soil of South Carolina.
She says some people see the flag as a memorial and a way to honor ancestors. She says that's not hate or racism.
The divisive symbol has flown in front of the state Capitol for 15 years after being moved from atop the Statehouse dome. Haley says its removal may sadden some in the state, but the time has come to take it down.
Haley reversed her position on the flag after a young white man who embraced it as a symbol of white supremacy was charged with murder in the deaths of nine black church members.
She says that man has a sick, twisted view of the flag.
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4:25 p.m.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says the Confederate flag should be removed from the Statehouse grounds, reversing her position on the divisive symbol.
The Republican's about-face Monday comes after a young white man who embraced the flag as a symbol of white supremacy was charged with murder in the deaths of nine black church members. The flag has flown in front of the state Capitol for 15 years after being moved from atop the Statehouse dome.
Haley was surrounded by Republicans and Democrats alike and received a loud applause and cheering when she made her announcement.
Haley said: "One hundred and fifty years after the end of the Civil War, the time has come."
The suspect in the church shootings, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, was photographed earlier holding Confederate flags. Police say he made racial insults at the church members during the shooting.
Supporters of the flag say it is a memorial to fallen Confederate soldiers, but opponents say it's a symbol of hate put atop the Statehouse dome to protest the civil rights movement.
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3:10 p.m.
A person familiar with Republican Sen. Tim Scott's decision says he is calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds.
Scott, of South Carolina, is the first African-American senator from the South since Reconstruction. He joins a growing number of calls for the flag to come down after a gunman opened fire in a historic black church, killing nine people.
The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Police say a young white man is responsible for the racially motivated attack at the church in Charleston.
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Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Charleston contributed to this report.
2:45 p.m.
A person familiar with his decision says Sen. Lindsey Graham will call for the Confederate flag flying on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds to come down.
The person says Graham will do so later Monday afternoon. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity so as not to preclude Graham's announcement.
Some Charleston, South Carolina-area political and religious leaders have asked state lawmakers to remove the flag from South Carolina's capital grounds in the wake of last week's slaying of nine black people during a Bible study.
A white man, Dylann Roof, has been charged in the deaths.
Graham said this past weekend he was open to revisiting the decision to use the flag, but said on CNN, it "is a part of who we are."
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Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in Washington contributed to this report.
2 p.m.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans says it plans to vigorously fight any effort to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of South Carolina's Statehouse.
The group says it was horrified at last week's shooting of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, allegedly by a white man who was photographed several times holding the Confederate flag and with other symbols of white supremacy.
In a statement, the group says there is "absolutely no link" between the massacre and the banner.
Leland Summers, South Carolina commander of the group, says the group is about heritage and history, not hate. He offered condolences to the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and says now is not the time to make political points.
Summers said the Sons of Confederate Veterans have 30,000 members nationwide that will fight any attempt to move the flag.
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1:40 p.m.
The White House says President Barack Obama believes the Confederate flag should no longer be flown in Charleston, South Carolina, or elsewhere, but doesn't have authority over that decision.
Spokesman Josh Earnest says Obama has maintained for years that the Confederate flag "should be taken down and placed in a museum where it belongs," but recognizes it's an issue for individual states.
Some Charleston-area political and religious leaders are calling on state lawmakers to remove the flag from South Carolina's capital grounds after a white man killed nine black people during a Bible study last week.
Earnest says it's very clear what Obama thinks would be the appropriate action.
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12:30 p.m.
A group of Charleston-area political and religious leaders are calling on state lawmakers to vote this week to remove the Confederate flag from South Carolina's capital grounds.
Officials including Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. and Democratic state Sen. Marlon Kimpson in North Charleston on Monday called on legislators to stay in session and vote as early as Tuesday to take down the flag from its place in front of the statehouse in Columbia.
The Rev. Nelson B Rivers III of the National Action Network said the flag should be removed before the body of state Sen. Clementa Pinckney lies in state at the Statehouse on Wednesday. Pinckney and eight other church members were shot to death last week as they attended Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston.
Kimpson says he's informed state Senate leaders that there is a "growing chorus" of members interested in taking up a debate while lawmakers are in session to discuss the budget.
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12:05 p.m.
South Carolina House Speaker Jay Lucas says moving the state forward from last week's shooting deaths at a historic black church in Charleston requires swiftly resolving the Confederate flag issue.
Lucas did not specify what he believes that resolution should be or how legislators could take it up.
The Legislature's regular session ended June 4. Legislators are expected to return later this week in a short, limited session to pass a budget compromise. Both chambers would have to give two-thirds approval just to take up anything new.
"The intense and difficult debate that took place in 2000 over the Confederate soldier flag was ultimately resolved by compromise. Wednesday's unspeakable tragedy has reignited a discussion on this sensitive issue," Lucas said in a statement.
South Carolina was the last state to fly the Confederate battle flag from its Statehouse dome until the 2000 compromise put a square version of the flag — the South Carolina Infantry Battle Flag — on a 30-foot flagpole at the Confederate Soldier Monument directly in front of the Statehouse, along one of Columbia's busiest streets.
Dylann Roof, who is white, has been charged in the deaths of the nine people in Charleston.
Gov. Nikki Haley has scheduled a news conference for later Monday. Her office has given no indication of what she will say.
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10:45 a.m.
Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley says he has been overwhelmed but not surprised at the outpouring of donations for a fund he helped set up for the families of the victims of the Charleston shooting.
Riley said donations poured in to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund and the Reverend Pinckney fund. City officials are still trying to figure out how much money the funds had Monday morning.
"I've got $110,000 in checks in my pocket. It's wonderful," Riley said.
The fund was set up after authorities say a white gunman opened fire on a black church in a racially motivated attack, killing nine people, including the Rev. Clementa Pinckney.
Riley says even in the darkest hours, as details started to come out about the shooting, he knew Charleston would show love instead of hate.
Jail clerical error acknowledged in church shooting gun buy
By JEFFREY COLLINS
Jul. 13, 2015 5:06 PM EDT
FILE -In this June 18, 2015 file photo, Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Cleveland County Courthouse in Shelby, N.C. A jail clerk made a mistake when entering information about a drug arrest for church shooting suspect Roof, the first in a series of missteps that allowed Roof to purchase a gun he shouldn't have been able to buy two months before the attack, authorities said. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)
LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — A jail clerk made a mistake when entering information about the location of a drug arrest for church shooting suspect Dylann Roof, the first in a series of missteps that allowed Roof to purchase a gun he shouldn't have been able to buy two months before the attack, authorities said.
Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon told The Associated Press in a statement that the jail discovered mistakes two days after Roof's drug arrest, but the change wasn't corrected in the state police database of arrests. So when a FBI examiner pulled Roof's records in April, she called the wrong agency, and Roof was eventually allowed to buy the .45-caliber handgun that would be used in the June 17 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, authorities said.
FBI Director James Comey on Friday promised a full review when he said Roof should have never been allowed to buy the gun. The sheriff on Monday also promised he was making changes that would flag discrepancies like the one that appeared to let Roof slip through the cracks. He didn't name the employee who made the error or say if the worker faced any discipline.
The FBI allows a gun sale if it can't give a definitive answer about whether someone can buy the gun after three days, which is what happened in Roof's case. The FBI examiner knew Roof had an arrest record, but couldn't find the documents.
In 2014, the FBI reported about 2 percent of background checks end with the FBI not getting enough information and failing to give an answer. Officials said they do about 58,000 checks on a typical day, handled by about 500 people at a call center.
There were a couple of mistakes that ended up in the criminal records database. State police records of Roof's drug arrest pulled by AP after he was identified as the church shooting suspect had the drug charge listed as a felony with the arresting agency as Lexington County Sheriff's Office. They have since been corrected. The charge is a misdemeanor and the arresting agency was the Columbia police department.
Koon, the sheriff, said that when the FBI examiner called his deputies, they pointed out the arrest was by Columbia Police. But the woman doing the FBI background check checked a spreadsheet of law enforcement agencies in Lexington County and it did not include Columbia because it is mostly in neighboring Richland County. The examiner called the police department in West Columbia — where the gun was bought — and found nothing.
Only a very small part of Columbia is in Lexington County, but the city's jurisdiction includes the entire Columbiana Centre mall where Roof was arrested. The officer searched Roof and found a drug doctors use to treat narcotic addiction without a prescription, according to a police report.
That information should have been enough to prevent Roof from buying a gun based on a federal law banning gun sales to anyone who uses or is addicted to a controlled substance, Comey said.
The FBI examiner also said it sent a fax to prosecutors in Lexington County looking for more information about the arrest and the fax was never answered.
A secretary said chief prosecutor Donnie Myers was in court in Saluda County on Monday. He didn't return a phone message.
A judge late last week ordered the temporary halt of information in Roof's case, saying his right to a fair trial "could be in jeopardy" because of all the publicity of his case. Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson's order prevents information such as 911 calls, coroner reports, witness statements and mental health records from being released until a hearing Thursday.
A US judge has entered not guilty pleas on more than 30 federal charges, including for hate crimes, for a white man accused of gunning down nine parishioners at a black church in South Carolina last month.
During Friday's hearing for 21-year-old Dylann Roof, his lawyer told US Magistrate Judge Bristow Marchant that his client wanted to enter a plea of guilty to all the counts.
But because the government hasn't decided whether to seek the death penalty on some of the counts, lawyers could not advise Roof on the issue, the lawyer said.
Marchant then entered the not guilty plea on all counts.
Roof appeared in a gray striped prison jumpsuit, his hands in shackles. He answered yes several times in response to the judge's questions but otherwise didn't speak.
Accused gunman in Charleston church shooting proposes guilty plea
Harriet McLeod, Reuters
First posted: Wednesday, September 16, 2015 11:38 AM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, September 16, 2015 03:54 PM EDT
In this June 18, 2015, file photo, Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Cleveland County Courthouse in Shelby, N.C. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)
CHARLESTON - An attorney for the man accused of gunning down nine people at a historic black church in South Carolina in June said on Wednesday his client is willing to plead guilty to state murder charges if that would spare him a death sentence.
A guilty plea by Dylann Roof, 21, in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole also would spare the victims' families and survivors of the shootings from the trauma of trial proceedings, Roof's attorney Bill McGuire said.
His remarks came during a hearing in Charleston over whether a judge will release 911 emergency telephone calls and police 8reports about the June 17 massacre during a Bible study meeting at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church.
Prosecutors declined to comment afterward on whether they would accept a guilty plea from Roof, who is white and has been linked to white supremacist views.
Judge J.C. Nicholson in July blocked the release of investigative materials in the state's murder case against Roof, citing concerns about graphic photos of the crime scene and emergency calls that might have recorded the sounds of victims.
Nicholson did not rule on Wednesday but indicated he would likely release some materials.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams, who is prosecuting Roof in federal court, argued on Wednesday for keeping the documents sealed. He said the families and survivors were "re-traumatized" every time they heard or read about the killings.
"It may take years before people are ready to see that," he said.
Media outlets asked the judge to lift his gag order, arguing that transparency ensures a defendant's right to a fair trial.
In addition to state murder charges, Roof faces 33 federal hate crime and weapons charges that also could result in a death sentence.
The federal charges are based on evidence that Roof targeted the black victims because of their race and "in order to interfere with their exercise of religion," according to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
At Roof's federal arraignment in July, his attorney said Roof wanted to plead guilty to those charges but his defense team was waiting until prosecutors decided whether they would seek the death penalty in their case.
The State newspaper reported on Tuesday that a friend who gave Roof a place to stay in the weeks ahead of the killings is a "potential target" in the federal investigation.
Joseph Meek Jr. is being investigated for allegedly making false statements and concealing knowledge of a crime from authorities, the paper said, citing a letter Meek received from the FBI.
The FBI has been investigating Joseph Meek, who gave Dylann Roof a place to stay at a mobile home weeks ahead of the killings.
14:17 Friday 18 September 2015
By Sky News US Team
A friend of Dylann Roof, the suspect in June's massacre of nine black churchgoers in South Carolina, has been charged with lying to federal investigators.
Joseph Meek, who gave 21-year-old Roof a place to stay at a mobile home in the weeks ahead of the killings, was taken into custody by FBI agents on Thursday.
An indictment unsealed on Friday accuses Meek of lying to agents about having knowledge of Roof's plan to kill the African-American worshippers at a Bible study.
The 21-year-old pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to authorities and concealing information at this first court appearance on Friday. A judge set a bond of $100,000.
Meek has previously described how Roof, while drunk on vodka, complained that "blacks were taking over the world" and that "someone needed to do something about it for the white race".
Meek told how Roof said he used birthday money from his parents to buy a .45-calibre Glock handgun, which Meek took away from him the night of his rant, but returned it to him once Roof had sobered up.
Federal authorities allege Meek had more detailed knowledge of the church shooting plot.
His arrest came a day after Roof's lawyer said his client was willing to plead guilty to state murder charges if that would spare him a death sentence.
Attorney Bill McGuire said a guilty plea by Roof in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole also would spare the victims' families and survivors of the shootings the trauma of a trial.
His remarks came during a hearing in Charleston over whether a judge will release 911 emergency telephone calls and police reports about the 17 June shooting.
Prosecutors declined to comment afterwards on whether they would accept a guilty plea from Roof, who is white and has been linked to white supremacist views.
Judge JC Nicholson did not rule on Wednesday, but indicated he would probably release some materials.
In July, he cited concerns about the graphic nature of the evidence from the crime scene at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston.
Assistant US Attorney Nathan Williams, who is prosecuting Roof in federal court, argued on Wednesday for keeping the documents sealed.
He said the families and survivors were "re-traumatised" every time they heard or read about the killings.
In addition to state murder charges, Roof faces 33 federal hate crime and weapons charges that also could result in a death sentence.
