Slain victims’ church to hold Sunday service
Parishioners were let into the bullet-scarred Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Saturday, getting a firsthand glimpse of the room where nine people from their congregation were slain.
Around that same time, the FBI said it was investigating a manifesto purportedly written by the suspected gunman, Dylann Storm Roof, 21.
The website linked to Roof contained photos of him holding a burning U.S. flag and standing on one. In other images, he was holding a Confederate flag, considered a divisive symbol by civil rights leaders and others.
The 2,500-word hatefilled essay talks about white supremacy and the author says “the event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case.”
Martin was an unarmed black teen who was fatally shot in Florida in 2012 by a neighbourhood watch volunteer. Martin was walking home, got into a confrontation with George Zimmerman and was shot.
Prosecutors accused Zimmerman of profiling Martin, but he was acquitted of murder.
The manifesto said “it was obvious that Zimmerman was in the right” and that the case led him to search “black on white crime” on the Internet. “I have never been the same since that day,” it said.
It’s unclear if Roof wrote it but the rants are in line with what he has told friends and what he said before allegedly opening fire inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Wednesday night.
Cleaning crews worked at the church Saturday and church members announced they will hold a Sunday service.
Harold Washington, 75, was with the small group that saw the lower-level room where the victims were shot.
“There were a few bullet holes around, but what they did, they cut them out so you don’t see the actual holes,” he said, adding that he expected an emotional service Sunday, and a large turnout. “We’re gonna have people come by that we’ve never seen before and will probably never see again, and that’s OK. It’s a church of the Lord — you don’t turn nobody down.”
The church had that same welcoming nature when Roof walked into their Bible study, Felecia Sanders, who survived the shooting, said at Roof’s bail hearing Friday. She lost her son, Tywanza, in the attack.
Two federal law enforcement officials close to the investigation said the FBI is aware of the website linked to Roof and is reviewing it. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the case. Internet registry records show that the website was created on Feb. 9 via a Russian registry service with the owner’s personal details hidden. A man who answered the phone at the Moscow-based company would not say who the site’s owner was.
Roof is being held in jail, facing nine counts of murder and a weapons charge. A police affidavit released Friday accused Roof of shooting all nine multiple times, and making a “racially inflammatory statement” as he stood over an unidentified survivor.
An inebriated Roof had complained recently that “blacks were taking over the world” and that “someone needed to do something about it for the white race,” according to Joey Meek, who tipped off the FBI when he saw his friend on surveillance images.