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The white man accused of gunning down nine black worshippers at a US church was ordered to remain in custody on murder charges yesterday, as authorities said they were investigating the killings as a possible act of “domestic terrorism”.
The carnage at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston was the worst attack on a US place of worship in decades and comes at a time of revived racial tensions in many parts of the country.
Reports that 21-year-old Dylann Roof, who is charged with nine murders as well as “possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime”, said he “wanted to start a race war” are sure to leave the city on edge.
The killings have also reignited concerns about gun control, with a clearly frustrated President Barack Obama saying the “senseless murders” on Wednesday night should force Americans to look closely at how violent people get easy access to firearms.
'Racist rant'
Members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church's mainly black congregation, many of them elderly, had gathered for a Bible meeting when the gunman walked into the building, sat for an hour, then opened fire.
Roof entered the church and initially didn't appear threatening, Charleston County Coroner Rae Wilson said. Sylvia Johnson, a relative of one of the victims, told CNN a survivor had told her the gunman became aggressive and violent, and went on a racist rant during the attack. Johnson said one of the victims tried to talk the shooter out of more killings after he opened fire.
"He said: 'No, you've raped our women and you're taking over the country. I have to do what I have to do'," she told CNN.
Johnson also said the shooter told the victims he left survivors so they could tell the story of the shooting.
Four pastors, including married father-of-two Democratic state Senator Clementa Pinckney, 41, were among the six women and three men shot dead at the church nicknamed "Mother Emanuel".
Other victims were Cynthia Hurd, 54; school track coach Reverend Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45; barber Tywanza Sanders, 26; church worker Ethel Lance, 70; church member Susie Jackson, 87; Reverend DePayne Middleton, 49; vicar's wife Myra Thompson, 59; and Reverend Daniel Simmons, 74.
Tearful relatives of the nine people killed expressed grief but also forgiveness at an emotional bond hearing for Roof, at which he was ordered held without bail on the murder charges. “Every fibre in my body hurts and I’ll never be the same. Tywanza Sanders was my son. But he was my hero,” said Felicia Sanders.
A spokeswoman for the US Justice Department, Emily Pierce, said authorities were looking at the killings “from all angles”. “This heartbreaking episode was undoubtedly designed to strike fear and terror into this community, and the department is looking at this crime from all angles, including as a hate crime and as an act of domestic terrorism,” Pierce said.
WATCH: Suspect arrested in Charleston church killings

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said she believed Roof should face the death penalty - legal in the state - if convicted. “This is an absolute hate crime,” Haley told NBC’s Today show. “We will absolutely want him to have the death penalty. This is the worst hate that I’ve seen and the country has seen in a long time.”
Roof was arrested in North Carolina on Thursday and brought back to South Carolina after he opted not to fight extradition.
Charleston County magistrate James Gosnell set bail at US$1 million on the weapons charge, but Roof must go before another judge if he wants to seek bail on the murder charges. His attorney said he accepted the arrangement.
Gosnell’s opening statement, in which he expressed sympathy for Roof’s family, instantly created a stir on social media. “We have victims, nine of them. But we also have victims on the other side. There are victims on this young man’s side of the family,” Gosnell said.
Conflicting descriptions of Roof, a high-school dropout, have emerged. The thin young man with the bowl-style haircut is alternately described as a quiet, even friendly loner who snapped - or a calculating white supremacist who supported segregation and had been planning for some time to kill blacks.
Roof had been arrested in recent months on a drug charge, which is still pending, and trespassing at a mall.
Several US media outlets have reported that Roof has already confessed to investigators. Roof told police he “wanted to start a race war”, one law enforcement official told CNN. Two sources also confirmed to NBC News that Roof, whose Facebook page includes a picture of him wearing the flags of defunct white supremacist regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia, has confessed.
He told police that he “almost didn’t go through with it because everyone was so nice to him”, the sources told the network, but ultimately, he decided to proceed.


Charleston church shooting suspect charged with murder of nine black people as officials probe 'domestic terrorism'

Suspected shooter Dylann Storm Roof (centre) appears by closed-circuit televison at his bond hearing in Charleston, South Carolina. Photo: Reuters

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