USA: Suspect arrested for killing nine in black church.
Dylann Roof, 21, received a gun from his father as a 21st birthday present in April, his uncle told Reuters; he opened fire during a religious service at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina.
247, with Reuters The suspect in the killing of nine people during a religious service at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, was arrested by police in Shelby.
Dylann Roof, 21, is white with blond hair and opened fire inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston on Wednesday night, according to Police Chief Gregory Mullen.
"For a horrible person to go in there and kill them is inexplicable, obviously the most intolerable and unbelievable act possible," Charleston Mayor Joe Riley told reporters. "The only reason someone would go into a church to shoot people praying is hatred."
Roof received a gun from his father as a 21st birthday present in April, his uncle told Reuters on Thursday. Authorities were at Dylann Roof's mother's house this morning, his uncle, Carson Cowles, said in an interview.
Cowles said he recognized Roof in a photo released by the police, and described him as quiet and calm. Roof's father gave him the .45 caliber pistol as a birthday present this year, the uncle said.
The incident brought to mind a 1963 bombing of an African American church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four girls and fueled the civil rights movement of the 1960s.