Nine dead in South Carolina church shooting

A gunman killed nine people, including a state legislator, at an historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in an incident the chief of police said he believed to be a “hate crime.”

Police are searching for a 21-year-old white man after the attack at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, police chief Greg Mullen said in a press conference early on Thursday morning.

The gunman opened fire Wednesday evening at the church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, before fleeing.

The Charleston Police Department said the shooting occurred at the historic Emanuel AME Church about 9 pm.

The police described the gunman as a cleanshaven white man about 21-years old who was wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and Timberland boots.

Reporters said families of the possible victims were arriving at the scene.

A reporter at the scene late Wednesday said the police pushed back members of the media after receiving a bomb threat.

Helicopters with searchlights circled overhead, and a group of pastors knelt and prayed across the street, The Associated Press reported.

The shooting called to mind a 1963 bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four girls and galvanized the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The church is one of the oldest black churches in the US. The current pastor and state senator the Rev Clementa C Pinckney is understood to be among the dead.

The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies have joined in the investigation, Chief Mullen said. Eight victims were found dead in the church, Mullen told reporters, and a ninth person died after being taken to hospital.

One other person was wounded and was being treated at a local hospital, Chief Mullen said.

None of the victims were immediately identified. But the Reverend Al Sharpton, the New York-based civil rights leader, said in a tweet that the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, the church’s pastor and a member of the state Senate, was among the dead.

The gothic revival-style church was built in 1891 and is considered a historically significant building, according to the National Park Service. The congregation was formed after black members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the city broke away “over disputed burial ground,“ according to the website of the National Park Service.

In 1822, one of the church’s co-founders tried to foment a slave rebellion in Charleston, the church’s website says. The plot was foiled by authorities and 35 people were executed.

The church houses the oldest black congregation south of Baltimore, the Park Service said. Late Wednesday, the campaign staff of Jeb Bush, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, said he was canceling appearances planned for Thursday in Charleston because of the shooting.

The attack came two months after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, Walter Scott, by a white police officer in neighbouring North Charleston that sparked major protests and highlighted racial tensions in the area.

The officer has been charged with murder, and the case prompted South Carolina lawmakers to push through a bill helping all police agencies in the state get body cameras.

In a statement, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley asked South Carolinians to pray for the victims and their families and decried violence on religious places.

“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,” Ms Haley said.

Soon after the shooting, a group of pastors huddled together praying in a circle across the street.

Community organiser Christopher Cason said he felt certain the shootings were racially motivated.

“I am very tired of people telling me that I don’t have the right to be angry,” Mr Cason said. “I am very angry right now.”

Even before Mr Scott’s shooting in April, Mr Cason said he had been part of a group meeting with police and local leaders to try to shore up better relationships.

Agencies