{"id":39427,"date":"2015-06-18T13:05:27","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T17:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/?p=39427"},"modified":"2015-08-10T04:50:38","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T08:50:38","slug":"charleston-shooting-gunman-reloaded-5-times-i-have-to-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breaking911.com\/charleston-shooting-gunman-reloaded-5-times-i-have-to-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"CHARLESTON SHOOTING: What We Know"},"content":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday, around 8:00 PM, 21-year-old Dylann Roof of Lexington, South Carolina, entered the Emanuel AME church located at 110 Calhoun Street and began shooting church members. Nine people were killed.<\/p>\n
Charleston police Chief Greg Mullen says Roof stayed at a prayer meeting for nearly an hour before he opened fire.<\/p>\n
Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of church pastor Clementa Pinckney, who was killed in the attack\u2014says a survivor told her the gunman reloaded five times. \u201cHe just said \u2018I have to do it,\u2019\u201d Johnson reports the survivor saying. \u201c\u2018You rape our women and you\u2019re taking over the country. You have to go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the dead was state Sen. Clementa Pinckney.\u00a0Authorities have called the shooting a hate crime.<\/p>\n
CNN reported that Roof\u2019s father had purchased a .45 handgun for his son\u2019s birthday and that matches the caliber of the gun found in his arrest. Because the gun was a gift and not directly tied to Roof, if the casings match those found at the sight of the crime it could tie the alleged shooter to the scene.<\/p>\n
Roof’s childhood friend, Joey Meek, alerted the FBI after recognizing him in a surveillance camera image that was widely circulated, said Meek’s mother, Kimberly Konzny. Roof had worn the same sweatshirt while playing Xbox videogames in their home recently.<\/p>\n
The gunman was apprehended Roof nearly four hours away from the crime scene in Shelby, South Carolina after a citizen provided a tip about someone driving erratically. Police Chief Gregory Mullen said alleged shooter Dylann Storm Roof was taken into custody with no resistance at 11:15 a.m. around 45 miles from Charlotte and 245 miles from Charleston.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Loretta Lynch called the shooting at the church known as \u201cMother Emanuel\u201d \u201cheartbreaking\u201d and \u201ctragic\u201d and said the Department of Justice had opened a hate crime investigation. \u201cWe stand ready to offer every resource, every means, and every tool that we possess in order to locate and to apprehend the perpetrator of this barbaric crime,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cActs like this one have no place in our country and no place in a civilized society, and I want to be clear, the individual who committed these acts will be found and will face justice.\u201d<\/p>\n